LIVED EXPERIENCE
OUTSIDE IN
P olicymakers frequently fail to listen to those they serve , making it impossible to understand their needs . ‘ Nothing about us without us ’ has long been a principle of the drug policy reform and harm reduction movements – and rightly so . In recent years , it has been good to see more agencies and institutions than before recognise this basic omission , and begin inviting people with ‘ lived experience ’ to participate in policy development , research and service delivery .
What does ‘ lived experience ’ really mean , ask Julian Buchanan and Oscar Graham
Clearly , however , there are risks of tokenism or highly selective invitations here , including among organisations purporting to be peer-led . And this raises nuanced issues which are worthy of exploration . In the drug field , what should ‘ lived experience ’ actually mean ?
It could mean the person has at some point used psychoactive drugs regularly . The trouble is , that ’ s basically all of us . But while use of regulated drugs like alcohol or nicotine would be a fitting – and desirable – qualification for involvements in those areas , most of us would consider it inadequate as ‘ lived experience ’ for work around state-banned drugs .
INSUFFICIENT LIVED EXPERIENCE We would point out that lived experience of legal drug use does not equate to that of illegal drug use . Though there is no obvious distinction between state-approved and prohibited drugs in terms of inherent risks , the difference concerns the impact of prohibition itself .
But that , in turn , is why simply having used prohibited drugs may be insufficient ‘ lived experience ’, if a person does not also have direct experience of prohibition enforcement .
Many white and wealthier drug users , in particular , do not . Because across the world , the drug war has – from its very inception – strategically targeted poor communities , people of colour , Indigenous people and many other marginalised groups .
To take one of countless global examples , a Māori New Zealander who uses drugs is far likelier than their white counterpart to have directly experienced any number of harms caused by prohibition enforcement . These include being frequently stopped and searched ; being raided , arrested and incarcerated ; being threatened with losing their children or their home ; being denied employment or healthcare ; and being subjected to forced treatment .
These human rights abuses are not universal experiences among people using prohibited
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22 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • MARCH 2025 WWW . DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS . COM