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Drug use among British Bangladeshis in London: a macro-structural perspective focusing on disadvantages contributing to individuals’ drug use trajectories and engagement with treatment services

Mantovani, N; Evans, C (2018) Drug use among British Bangladeshis in London: a macro-structural perspective focusing on disadvantages contributing to individuals’ drug use trajectories and engagement with treatment services. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 26 (2). pp. 125-132. ISSN 1465-3370 https://doi.org/10.1080/09687637.2017.1421143
SGUL Authors: Mantovani, Nadia

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Abstract

Aims: The main aim of our study was to produce an understanding of factors contributing to drug-using trajectories among men and women from a Bangladeshi background living in East London. Methods: Fifteen semi-structured, one-to-one interviews were conducted with male and female Bangladeshi drug users accessing treatment services. A macro-structural lens was adopted to interpret participants’ accounts of their drug use and explored the intersecting factors that at a micro, meso, and macro level impacted on their drug-using trajectories. Findings: Problem drug use (heroin and crack cocaine) among participants was the result of inter-related factors such as their friendship networks and the embeddedness of drugs in drug-using networks, the structural disadvantages participants experienced, and the need for concealment of their drug use which impacted on participants’ effective utilisation of drug treatment services. Problem drug use was a functional way of responding to and dealing with social, economic, and cultural disconnection from mainstream institutions as participants faced severe multiple disadvantages engendering stigma and shame. Conclusions: We propose a ‘life-focused’ intervention aimed at creating extra opportunities and making critically-needed resources available in the marginalised environment of the study’s participants, which are key to restoring and maintaining agency and sustaining well-being.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Keywords: Substance Abuse, 1117 Public Health And Health Services
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Population Health Research Institute (INPH)
Journal or Publication Title: Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy
ISSN: 1465-3370
Dates:
DateEvent
21 January 2018Published Online
21 December 2017Accepted
Publisher License: Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/109523
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1080/09687637.2017.1421143

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