Defining Our Identities as People Who Use Drugs

Stigma: is defined as the experience of being “deeply discredited” or marked due to one’s “undesired differentness.” To be stigmatized is to be held in contempt, shunned or rendered socially invisible because of a socially disapproved status.(Drug Policy Alliance, Jan. 2014, Stigma & People Who Use Drugs). Drug-Related Stigma impacts people who use or used drugs. A person who uses drugs is one of the most socially acceptable identities to stigmatize. Health care professionals regularly hold negative or stereotyped ideas about people who use drugs and it regularly results in substandard care solely on the premise of drug-related stigma. Many people who use drugs do not seek needed medical care because the experience of stigma.