Grant: Doctoral: Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

Illicit drug use is associated with severe harms among youth. In Vancouver, recent epidemiological research has revealed alarming rates of mortality as well as HIV and HCV incidence among drug using youth. These problems persist despite the recent establishment of an array of youth services, including various harm reduction programs. While there is growing recognition that contextual factors play a central role in determining high-risk drug using behavior, there exist few in-depth investigations of drug using contexts or 'scenes' that focus on the perspectives of young drug users. Such an approach is critical to the development of meaningful policy and program interventions that seek to address the severe and preventable suffering among drug using youth. The proposed study will employ qualitative ethnographic methodology to explore young people's understandings of the structural, social and physical landscape of the downtown Vancouver drug scene, and how this environment shapes experiences of safety and risk among drug using youth. Although new lines of inquiry are likely to emerge as the research progresses, the primary objectives of this study are: 1) to examine how young drug users are initiated into and come to understand the downtown Vancouver drug scene; 2) to examine how this landscape shapes experiences of risk (including HIV risk behavior, drug-related harms, and physical violence) among young people, and alternatively, how it facilitates situations of safety; and 3) to examine the effects of spatial exclusion as a result of urban revitalization and gentrification on experiences and understandings of safety and risk. By exploring each of these objectives, this study aims to identify those aspects of this 'risk environment' that mediate harm among young drug users, and are therefore relevant to policy and program intervention.