University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Harm Reduct J. 2013 Oct 8;10:22. doi: 10.1186/1477-7517-10-22.
Blue lights are sometimes placed in public washrooms to discourage injection drug use. Their effectiveness has been questioned and concerns raised that they are harmful but formal research on the issue is limited to a single study. We gathered perceptions of people who use injection drugs on the effects of blue lights with the aim of informing harm reduction practice.
We interviewed 18 people in two Canadian cities who currently or previously used injection drugs to better understand their perceptions of the rationale for and consequences of blue lights in public washrooms.
Participants described a preference for private places to use injection drugs, but explained that the need for an immediate solution would often override other considerations. While public washrooms were in many cases not preferred, their accessibility and relative privacy appear to make them reasonable compromises in situations involving urgent injecting. Participants understood the aim of blue lights to be to deter drug use. The majority had attempted to inject in a blue-lit washroom. While there was general agreement that blue lights do make injecting more difficult, a small number of participants were entirely undeterred by them, and half would use a blue-lit washroom if they needed somewhere to inject urgently. Participants perceived that, by making veins less visible, blue lights make injecting more dangerous. By dispersing public injection drug use to places where it is more visible, they also make it more stigmatizing. Despite recognizing these harms, more than half of the participants were not opposed to the continued use of blue lights.
Blue lights are unlikely to deter injection drugs use in public washrooms, and may increase drug use-related harms. Despite recognizing these negative effects, people who use injection drugs may be reluctant to advocate against their use. We attempt to reconcile this apparent contradiction by interpreting blue lights as a form of symbolic violence and suggest a parallel with other emancipatory movements for inspiration in advocating against this and other oppressive interventions.
蓝色灯光有时会被放置在公共洗手间以阻止注射毒品的使用。其效果受到质疑，且有人担心蓝色灯光有害，但关于这个问题的正式研究仅限于一项研究。我们收集了使用注射毒品者对蓝色灯光影响的看法，旨在为减少伤害的实践提供信息。
我们在加拿大的两个城市采访了 18 名目前或以前使用注射毒品的人，以更好地了解他们对公共洗手间蓝色灯光的基本原理和后果的看法。
参与者描述了对私人场所使用注射毒品的偏好，但解释说，紧急情况下的解决方案往往会优先于其他考虑因素。虽然公共洗手间在很多情况下不受欢迎，但由于其便利性和相对隐私性，在涉及紧急注射的情况下，它们似乎是合理的妥协。参与者理解蓝色灯光的目的是阻止药物使用。大多数人都曾试图在蓝色灯光下注射。虽然普遍认为蓝色灯光确实使注射更加困难，但少数参与者完全不受其影响，如果他们急需注射，他们会使用蓝色灯光的洗手间。参与者认为，蓝色灯光使静脉不那么明显，使注射更加危险。通过将公共注射毒品使用分散到更可见的地方，它们也使注射更加污名化。尽管认识到这些危害，但超过一半的参与者并不反对继续使用蓝色灯光。
蓝色灯光不太可能阻止公共洗手间内的注射毒品使用，反而可能增加与毒品使用相关的危害。尽管认识到这些负面影响，使用注射毒品的人可能不愿意反对使用蓝色灯光。我们试图通过将蓝色灯光解释为一种象征性的暴力形式来调和这种明显的矛盾，并建议从其他解放运动中汲取灵感，以反对这种和其他压迫性干预。
