2134/22908
Emma Wincup
Emma
Wincup
Mark Monaghan
Mark
Monaghan
Scrounger narratives and dependent drug users: welfare, workfare and warfare
Loughborough University
2016
Drug use
Drug policy
Welfare
Social security
Stigma
Workfare
Language, Communication and Culture not elsewhere classified
Studies in Human Society not elsewhere classified
2016-10-19 09:41:13
Journal contribution
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Scrounger_narratives_and_dependent_drug_users_welfare_workfare_and_warfare/9474590
Since 2008 political and media attention has focused on the allegedly problematic behaviour of drug users who ‘choose’ to pursue their ‘habit’ at the expense of the hardworking taxpayer. This forms part of the ‘new welfare commonsense’, which censures welfare dependency and stigmatises
drug users as ‘undeserving’ claimants, entrenching the ‘war on drug user’ discourse. This article makes a significant contribution to recognising that stigma is a substantial barrier to recovery. It identifies ways of challenging the ‘scrounger’ narrative as applied to drug users through more informed media reporting and less coercive approaches to address drug and welfare dependency.