“Once You’re Labeled a Drug User, You Might as Well Stay the F*** Home”: Adverse Police Experiences Among People Who Inject Drugs

BACKGROUND: Despite the growing relevance of rural areas in the overdose crisis, research on rural people who inject drugs and their experiences with law enforcement remains limited. This research examines how rural policing and stigma uniquely shape the lives of people who inject drugs. METHODS: Forty-one semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with people who inject drugs in southern Illinois. For this analysis, we focused on participants who mentioned police in response to the question, "Have you ever been treated differently because you used drugs?" RESULTS: We identified three interrelated manifestations of stigma in rural people who inject drugs' interactions with police-verbal degradation and discrediting, unwarranted searches, and dehumanization-that align with Earnshaw's (2020) model distinguishing between stigma components (stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination) and health impact pathways. CONCLUSION: This study emphasizes the impact of stigma on people who use drugs, particularly in their interactions with law enforcement.