Moral disengagement and the harms of cocaine use

Abstract

There has been recent UK media attention on the global impact of the cocaine trade and the morality of personal use of cocaine powder. In this study we investigated whether people who use cocaine engage in moral disengagement (MD) strategies to reduce anticipated guilt associated with use. Participants read text describing the impact of the global cocaine market on others and completed a range of measures including assessments of substance use, MD, anticipated guilt, internalised moral identity, and empathy. We hypothesised that cocaine-related MD would positively predict cocaine use, and this would be partly mediated by anticipated guilt. Complete data were obtained from 254 participants through an anonymous cross-sectional survey (59.8% Female; mean age 30.8 ± 12.6 years). Our hypotheses were supported; (i) MD predicted cocaine use positively and anticipated guilt negatively; (ii) anticipated guilt negatively predicted cocaine use; anticipated guilt partially mediated the relationship between MD and cocaine use. People who use powder cocaine may use MD to reduce the anticipated guilt associated with knowledge of the harms associated with the drugs trade. Campaigns that focus on the morality of cocaine use or ethical choices may therefore have limited impact unless MD is challenged as part of these campaigns.

Young adults’ pathways of negating harms and pleasure related to recreational poly-drug use: A complex balancing act

“…Participants emphasized that the negative effects of their cocaine use were psychological rather than physical; they were more concerned with how their cocaine use negatively affects their disposition than their health. Relatedly, with current studies like Sumnall et al (41) that further explore what matters in how people who use drugs make decisions about their use, our understanding of harm, risk, and motivations related to cocaine use continues to expand and messages should re ect these matters.…”

Less than human: dehumanisation of people who use heroin

“…Considering the association we found between blatant dehumanisation and lower support for non-discriminatory drug policy, dehumanisation could be being employed as a moral disengagement strategy to rationalise lack of support or dehumanising attitudes might simply precede lower support. Follow-up work incorporating moral disengagement measures could help to resolve this, as addressing dehumanisation as a moral disengagement strategy would require a different approach to stigma reduction actions (Livingston et al , 2012; Sumnall et al , 2021b).…”