Barriers to recovery: a qualitative query into the punitive approach to substance use

Abstract

With the War on Drugs came a punitive approach to drug use and the criminalization of addiction. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how this approach impacts those with addictions who are also criminally involved. Barriers related to obtaining a criminal record and stigmatization due to incarceration may have nuanced effects on desistance from crime and drug use for those whom are simultaneously attempting to gain sobriety. This paper analyzes 32 semi-structured life-event narratives of individuals with substance abuse histories originally released from prison in the early 1990s and re-interviewed in 2009. The sample of participants includes individuals who self-reported desistance from both drugs and crime and those who were still engaged in these activities. Through these narratives, we see how the punitive approach to drug use and related crime interacts with the complexities of addiction. The results show that nuanced collateral consequences arise for individuals who are both criminally involved and suffer with addictions and that these consequences, in turn, not only affected desistance from crime, but also recovery potential. The implications of this analysis include alternatives to incarceration and expanding treatment and diversion options to not only low-level drug offenders, but to offenders who portray chronic addiction.