To neither target, capture, surveille, nor wage war: On-going need for attention to metaphor theory in care and prevention for people who use drugs

摘要

Metaphors, and the frames they evoke, potently influence how people understand issues. These concepts of discourse, metaphor, and framing have been productively used in a range of studies including in the field of addiction. In public health and clinical discourse on people who use drugs, use of terms such as targeting, surveilling, and capturing, along with war on drugs frames and referring to drug treatment as substitution may reinforce negative perceptions of people who use drugs. Avoiding military metaphors and explicitly leveraging metaphors that emphasize humanity, social cohesion, and agency have the potential to improve public health for people who use drugs.