Abstract

Amidst growing recognition that people who use drugs are often vulnerable and in need of health-focused support, international conventions and national priorities on personal drug use are changing with emphasis shifting from criminal justice to health narratives. In Scotland, there has been a move toward health-led drug policymaking, and yet little is known about how diversion operates in this context. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted utilizing semi-structured interviews with professionals holding lead, strategic-level roles in Scottish diversion policy and practice (n = 15). Interview transcripts were thematically analyzed using a structured framework technique. Findings show that the term ‘diversion’ is used to refer to criminal justice-initiated drug treatment routes, both pre- and post-conviction. Unlike many international examples, Scottish diversions tend to embed health-focused support within criminal sanctions, rather than acting as alternatives. Participants expressed the view that the term diversion implied a shift from criminal justice sanctions to health-led support that did not occur in reality. We, therefore, argue that the term diversion may function to mute a ‘discursive struggle’ between criminal justice sanctions and health interventions for people who use drugs, obscuring a growing gap between aspirational governance principles and institutional and lived realities.

抽象的

在人们日益认识到吸毒者经常容易受到伤害并需要以健康为重点的支持的同时，国际公约和关于个人吸毒的国家优先事项正在发生变化，重点从刑事司法转向卫生叙述。在苏格兰，人们已经朝着以健康为主导的毒品政策制定迈出了一步，但对于这种情况下转移的运作方式知之甚少。使用半结构化访谈进行了探索性定性研究，这些专家在苏格兰的转移政策和实践中担任领导，战略级角色（n = 15）。访谈记录使用结构化框架技术进行主题分析。研究结果表明，“转移”一词用于指定罪前后的刑事司法启动的毒品治疗途径。与许多国际例子不同，苏格兰的转移倾向于将以健康为中心的支持纳入刑事制裁之内，而不是充当替代选择。与会者认为，“转移”一词意味着从刑事司法制裁过渡到实际上没有发生的以健康为主导的支助。因此，我们认为，“转移”一词的作用可能是使刑事司法制裁和针对吸毒者的卫生干预之间的“纠纷斗争”静音，从而消除了理想治理原则与体制现实和现实之间日益扩大的鸿沟。