6 TPC Digest Read full article and references: Green, D. A., & Sperandio, K. R. (2024). Abolitionist praxis for substance use clients who experience anti-drug policing. The Professional Counselor, 14(1), 48–63. doi: 10.15241/dag.14.1.48 Substance use has long been met with an approach of criminalization in the United States. Heightened by the war on drugs in the 1980s, encounters with police officers have been common occurrences in the lives of individuals who use substances. This article explores the history and connections between policing and substance use to offer counseling and social justice strategies for counselors who provide substance use counseling services. Contemporary criticisms of policing have often emphasized that uses of force from police officers are inherently violent, meaning that such force relies on violent behavior, and that its function is to exert control over marginalized populations. For clients who use substances, this may entail being stopped and frisked, arrested, or surveilled, as well as having substance-related paraphernalia confiscated by police officers. As a result, individuals who struggle with substance use may be vulnerable to experiencing violence during police interactions that impact their mental health and well-being. Moreover, this exposure to police violence and the broader criminalization of substance use creates a barrier for many clients who use substances to access and receive trauma-informed care. Counselors have a responsibility to both provide trauma-informed care for clients who use substances and address matters of police violence through clinical practice and social justice and advocacy efforts. Despite this responsibility, the prevalent criminalization of substance use inhibits counselors’ ability to achieve and provide trauma-informed care because of the looming risk of experiencing police violence prior to and during treatment, particularly for court-mandated substance use clients. Adopting and integrating abolition—a social justice praxis that advocates for an end to carceral systems, such as policing and prison systems—is advocated for as a necessity for counselors who work with clients who use substances. This social justice approach emphasizes the creation of systems and practices that promote and facilitate safety, healing, justice, and accountability for harm caused through use of substances and from experiencing violence from policing. Thus, this article reviews various considerations for counselors that align with a praxis of abolition. These strategies include, but are not limited to, minimizing contact between clients and police, using harm reduction over abstinence-based treatment, contributing to mutual aid efforts, integrating peer support into treatment, and advocating for the decriminalization of substances. With the use of an abolitionist praxis, counselors have a greater ability to offer counseling that aligns with the core principles of trauma-informed care. Darius A. Green, PhD, NCC, is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Katharine R. Sperandio, PhD, NCC, ACS, LPC, is an assistant professor and a CACREP-accreditation coordinator at Saint Joseph’s University. Correspondence may be addressed to Darius A. Green, 1420 Austin Bluffs Pkwy, Colorado Springs, CO 80918, dgreen20@uccs.edu. Darius A. Green, Katharine R. Sperandio Abolitionist Praxis for Substance Use Clients Who Experience Anti-Drug Policing 6 TPC Digest
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