title: Harm Reduction From Below: On Sharing and Caring in Drug Use.
abstract: This article focuses on how recreational drug users in the Netherlands and in online communities navigate the risks and reduce the harms they associate with psychoactive drug use. To do so, we examined the protective practices they invent, use, and share with their immediate peers and with larger drug experimenting communities online. The labor involved in protective practices and that which ultimately informsharm reduction from belowfollows three interrelated trajectories: (1) the handling and sharing of drugs to facilitatehassle-freedrug use, (2) creating pleasant and friendly spaces that we highlight under the practices ofdrug use attunements, and (3) the seeking and sharing of information in practices tospread the good high. We focus not only on users' concerns but also on how these concerns shape their approach to drugs, what young people do to navigate uncertainties, and how they reach out to and create different sources of knowledge to minimize adversities and to improve highs. Harm reduction from below, we argue, can best be seen in the practices ofsharingaround drug use and in thecaringfor the larger community of drug-using peers.
authors.affiliation: Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Inge
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Van Schipstal
authors.affiliation: Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Swasti
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.affiliation: Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Moritz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berning
authors.affiliation: Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hayley
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Murray
keywords: NPS; designer drugs; harm reduction; party drugs; user experience; virtual communities