title: "We need somewhere to smoke crack": An ethnographic study of an unsanctioned safer smoking room in Vancouver, Canada.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many cities around the globe have experienced substantial increases in crack cocaine use. Public health programmes have begun to address crack smoking, primarily through the distribution of safer crack use equipment, but their impacts have been limited. More comprehensive safer environmental interventions, specifically safer smoking rooms (SSR), have been implemented only in select European cities. However, none have been subjected to rigorous evaluation. This ethnographic study was undertaken at an 'unsanctioned' SSR operated by a drug user-led organization in Vancouver, Canada, to explore how this intervention shaped crack smoking practices, public crack smoking, and related harms.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ethnographic fieldwork was undertaken at this SSR from September to December 2011, and included approximately 50 hours of ethnographic observation and 23 in-depth interviews with people who smoke crack. Data were analyzed by drawing on the 'Risk Environment' framework and concepts of 'symbolic', 'everyday', and 'structural' violence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our findings illustrate how a high demand for SSRs was driven by the need to minimize exposure to policing (structural violence), drug scene violence (everyday violence), and stigma (symbolic violence) that characterized unregulated drug use settings (e.g., public spaces). Although resource scarcity and social norms operating within the local drug scene (e.g., gendered power relations) perpetuated crack pipe-sharing within unregulated drug use settings, the SSR fostered harm reduction practices by reshaping the social-structural context of crack smoking and reduced the potential for health harms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Given the significant potential of SSRs in reducing health and social harms, there is an urgent need to scale up these interventions. Integrating SSRs into public health systems, and supplementing these interventions with health and social supports, has potential to improve the health and safety of crack-smoking populations.
authors: BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Electronic address: rmcneil@cfenet.ubc.ca.
authors: Ryan
authors: R
authors: McNeil
authors: BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Kerr
authors: Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors: Hugh
authors: H
authors: Lampkin
authors: BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
authors: Will
authors: W
authors: Small
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001955:British Columbia / Q000453:epidemiology; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016578:Crack Cocaine / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003625:Data Collection; D055030:Drug Users; D005260:Female; D040261:Harm Reduction; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D012944:Social Support; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control*
chemical_list: D016578:Crack Cocaine
keywords: Crack cocaine; Drug use; Harm reduction; Qualitative; Safer smoking rooms