Relational anonymity in reducing the harms of illicit drug use: accounts of users of dark web- and street-based services in Finland.

Autor: Ranta J; Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, 33014, Finland. johanna.ranta@tuni.fi., Kaskela T; A-Clinic Foundation, Helsinki, 00510, Finland., Nurmi J; Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, 33720, Finland., Ruokolainen T; Aalto University, Espoo, 02150, Finland., Shorter GW; Drug and Alcohol Research Network, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, BT9 1NN, UK.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Harm reduction journal [Harm Reduct J] 2024 Dec 21; Vol. 21 (1), pp. 224. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Dec 21.
DOI: 10.1186/s12954-024-01139-y
Abstrakt: Background: Protecting individual anonymity is a common practice in harm reduction (HR), as it can mitigate the fears that may prevent people from accessing services. Protecting anonymity usually means applying for services with a pseudonym. However, anonymity protection practices have diversified in current HR environments, for example, on the streets or in the Tor network, which relies on technology to guarantee exceptionally strong anonymity. Despite its importance, the individual's need for anonymity when seeking help to reduce drug-related harm has been underexplored.
Methods: The research contexts included four street- and dark web-based HR services in Finland. The data consisted of service user interviews and naturally occurring conversations in the Tor network. We focused on service users' accounts of their need for anonymity and applied the concept of relational anonymity, acknowledging that wider contextual relations intertwine with situational needs for anonymity. We asked: What kinds of needs for anonymity do service users express when discussing seeking help to reduce drug-related harm? How do service users account for their need for anonymity when seeking such help? To which kinds of contextual relations are these accounts attached?
Results: We identified connections between the accounts of the need for anonymity and various contextual relations: (1) excusing the need for anonymity by referring to societal relations: blaming Finnish society for stigmatising attitudes and exclusionary practices; (2) excusing the need for anonymity by referring to service system relations: blaming the service system for the risk of negative consequences from recording the use of illicit drugs; (3) justifying and excusing the need for anonymity by referring to personal relations: appealing to personal situation, feelings and experiences.
Conclusions: The need for anonymity reflects problematic societal relations, in which the stigma towards drug use is strong. The service users' accounts were motivated by rational actions to avoid possible sanctions and the perceived abuse of power in Finnish society and services, which the service users deemed to have various negative consequences in their lives. Societies should promote cultural atmospheres and information sharing practices where anonymity is not needed, but services that protect anonymity are crucial in the current societal conditions.
Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: We followed the guidelines of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity regarding responsible and ethical research and obtained ethical approval from the Ethics Committee of the Tampere Region (statement 89/2021). The interviewees signed the consent forms under a chosen pseudonym. The conversations on the Torilauta online forum in the Tor network were anonymous. Consequently, it was not possible to request separate research consent from the untraceable individuals who participated in those public discussions. The impact assessment documents have addressed this issue [see 49]. Consent for publication: Both the interviewed individuals and the parent organisations of the HR service providers received information on the study and granted permission to use the data in publications. They also agreed that the authors would respect their anonymity by removing participant pseudonyms and proper nouns from the analysed data excerpts. Regarding the individual conversation participants in the Tor network, see the ‘Ethics approval and consent to participate’ section. The Torilauta site administration collected and provided the data for research purposes and they were informed that it would be used in publications. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
(© 2024. The Author(s).)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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