How the war on drugs impacts social determinants of health beyond the criminal legal system

Cohen, Aliza P.; Vakharia, Sheila P.; Netherland, Julie; Frederique, Kassandra

doi:10.1080/07853890.2022.2100926

Cited by 52 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 99 publications

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“…Our findings underscore how providing people like those in our study an adequate income and stable housing has the potential to positively impact their socioeconomic situation and their mental and physical health and well-being (Baxter et al, 2021;Coates & Cowgill, 2021). Nonetheless, as our findings highlight, the provision of adequate financial support and housing must be accompanied by responses that also tackle other underlying socioeconomic and structural drivers of illicit drug use (Cohen et al, 2022;Dasgupta et al, 2018). For example, for many participants, illicit drug consumption was the only mechanism they felt they had at their disposal to deal with the additional stresses of the pandemic, including isolation and boredom during lockdowns, challenges accessing scarce emergency food and housing services, being placed in overcrowded crisis housing and limited access to drug treatment (Coleman et al, 2022;Efunnuga et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Our study fills an important gap in the literature about the positive and negative socioeconomic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated responses on the lives of a group of people who inject drugs and/or use methamphetamine. Findings underscore how health and well-being outcomes are inextricably bound to the socioeconomic environment (Cohen et al, 2022;Dasgupta et al, 2018;Ruiz et al, 2022) and, thus, that the impacts of pandemic restrictions go further than those involving drug-related harms or benefits. Our study also extends understandings of how, for socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, the pandemic increased existing inequities (Davidson et al, 2023;Delardas et al, 2022;Kent et al, 2022;Morante-García et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

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Socioeconomic consequences of the COVID‐19 pandemic for people who use drugs

Walker,

Dietze,

Higgs

et al. 2023

Aust J Social Issues

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The COVID‐19 pandemic triggered widespread socioeconomic hardship, disproportionately impacting disadvantaged populations. People who use illicit drugs are more likely to experience unemployment, homelessness, criminal justice involvement and poorer health outcomes than the general community, yet little is known about the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic on their lives. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted in‐depth interviews with 76 participants from two cohort studies of people who use illicit drugs (people who inject drugs and/or use methamphetamine) in Victoria, Australia. Findings support claims that pandemic‐related Social Security supplementary payments and initiatives to reduce homelessness, although not systemically transforming people's lives, produced temporary relief from chronic socioeconomic hardship. Results also indicate how temporary interruptions to drug supply chains inflated illicit drug prices and produced adverse consequences such as financial and emotional stress, which was exacerbated by drug withdrawal symptoms for many participants. Furthermore, increased community demand for emergency food and housing support during the pandemic appeared to reduce participants' access to these services. Our findings about the unintended consequences of pandemic responses on the socioeconomic lives of a group of people who use illicit drugs provide insights into and opportunities for policy reform to redress their entrenched disadvantage.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Socioeconomic consequences of the COVID‐19 pandemic for people who use drugs

Walker,

Dietze,

Higgs

et al. 2023

Aust J Social Issues

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Even modern-day efforts such as Senator Cory Booker's EQUAL Act (2021) (Congress.gov, 2021, the most recent attempt to create racial parity in drug conviction sentencing, failed to pass in the Congress (Dillard & Wasson, 2022). The focus on law enforcement and incarceration rather than rehabilitation has intentionally created social consequences that undermine key determinants of health detailed by Cohen et al (2022), including education, employment, housing, and access to benefits. Room and Reuter (2012) argued that the UNSCND has constrained national policy experimentation because it requires nation states to criminalize drug use, and such experimentation would call for amendments of existing treaties, the formulation of new treaties, or the withdrawal of states from existing treaties.…”

Section: Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The focus on law enforcement and incarceration rather than rehabilitation has intentionally created social consequences that undermine key determinants of health detailed by Cohen et al. (2022), including education, employment, housing, and access to benefits.…”

Section: Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multidisciplinary argument for the decriminalization of drugs

Gibson,

Patterson,

Naples

et al. 2023

J Addict Offender Couns

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This manuscript offers an overview of 11 disciplinary perspectives on the failed and destructive War on Drugs and the salutary prospects from decriminalizing drug use, including History, African American studies, Journalism, Sociology, Political Science, Cost Accounting, Urban Education, Counseling, Psychology, Nursing, and Public Health. This offers a roadmap for counselor social and political advocacy with drug policy and highlights community collaboration opportunities.

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Interpreting and Addressing Racialized Inequities in Rheumatic Disease Care and Outcomes

Yang,

Feldman

2024

Arthritis Care & Research

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Health inequities, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), are "differences in health status or in the distribution of health resources among different population groups, arising from the social conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age." 1 Numerous published studies to date among individuals with rheumatic and musculoskeletal conditions demonstrate profound and persistent inequities in care and outcomes by race and ethnicity. Among individuals with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), studies consistently show that individuals of African descent receive poorer quality care-from inadequate treatment regimens to inconsistent access to care, to fragmented care use patterns-and have more damage accrual, adverse outcomes, and higher mortality. [2][3][4][5][6] In individuals with osteoarthritis, studies demonstrate racial disparities in the receipt of joint arthroplasty and of recommended treatments like physical therapy, more severe disease at the time of presentation, and poorer outcomes. 7,8 Although there are fewer published studies examining these factors in rheumatoid arthritis, racialized inequities have been observed in receipt of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, in disease activity, and in access to rheumatologists. 9-11 A recent study by Sowa et al 12 has similarly demonstrated significant racialized inequities in receipt of knee arthroplasty among individuals cared for in the US Military Health System. Key challenges in rheumatology, and across all fields of medicine, include defining what race does and does not represent, understanding the mechanisms that drive these persistent racialized inequities, and developing sustainable, measurable interventions that close these gaps. Defining race and ethnicityRace and ethnicity are social constructs that the categories of which have changed over time based on geographic, cultural, and sociopolitical shifts. 13 In general, race arbitrarily divides people based on ancestral origin and physical characteristics (eg, skin color), whereas ethnicity captures shared values, language, and cultural norms among a group of people. 13 Ethnicity is distinct from race; the two should not be conflated because it risks minimizing other forms of discrimination such as xenophobia, colorism, and religious oppression. 14 According to Bailey et al, 15 "the modern concept of race emerged" in the United States as "early European settlers sought to preserve an economy" founded on exploiting the land and labor of Indigenous people and sustained by enslaving African people. 16,17 In the making of the United States, the colonists created a racial hierarchy, based on the unfounded premise that Black and Native American individuals were inferior, to justify the subordination and oppression of these groups. [16][17][18] After slavery, state and federal governments continued to perpetuate racial domination through Jim Crow laws, racial residential segregation, and mass incarceration, among others, to maintain political, social, economic, and ideological power ...

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How the war on drugs impacts social determinants of health beyond the criminal legal system

Cited by 52 publications

References 99 publications

Socioeconomic consequences of the COVID‐19 pandemic for people who use drugs

Socioeconomic consequences of the COVID‐19 pandemic for people who use drugs

Multidisciplinary argument for the decriminalization of drugs

Interpreting and Addressing Racialized Inequities in Rheumatic Disease Care and Outcomes

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