Narkomania: Drugs, HIV, and Citizenship in Ukraine - Softcover

"Narkomania is an innovative book that asks us to rethink everything we know about addiction and statebuilding. It is a poignant, occasionally furious look at how drug policies meant to help people who use drugs in fact do great violence to them." -- Elizabeth Dunn, Indiana University, Bloomington, and author of No Path Home "Narkomania makes a fascinating contribution to anthropologies of global and public health. By following 'addiction imaginaries' across broad contexts, Jennifer Carroll moves addiction studies from the clinic into local, regional, and national politics, and personal meanings. This is crucial reading for anyone interested in the embeddedness of addiction in politics and everyday life." -- Tomas Matza, University of Pittsburgh, and author of Shock Therapy "Narkomania is accessible, honest, eye-opening, and relevant. It revisits with new insight and great passion the complex and entwined worlds of drug addiction and treatment. Jennifer Carroll provides a clear view on the workings of structure and agency in the contemporary world, and affirms the vital social uses of those deemed useless." -- Merrill Singer, University of Connecticut, and co-author of The Social Value of Drug Addicts "Exposing the moralized judgments dogging drug users, Narkomania details the brutal modes of exclusion being deployed to redefine Ukraine's body politic. Jennifer J. Carroll both explains the origins and uses of this 'addiction imaginary,' and counters it with a profoundly humanizing portrait of the lives and fates of Ukrainians who use drugs." -- Michele Rivkin-Fish, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill "With sensitivity and deep insight that reflects her long-term commitment to her interlocutors, Carroll shows us the complicated and heartbreaking world of addiction in a post-soviet space. Narkomania is a stunning demonstration of the power of medical anthropology to question all that we think we know about drug addiction, disease, and treatment in these difficult political times." -- Jason De Leon, UCLA, and Director of the Undocumented Migration Project

Against the backdrop of a post-Soviet state set aflame by geopolitical conflict and violent revolution, Narkomania considers whether substance use disorders are everywhere the same and whether our responses to drug use presuppose what kind of people those who use drugs really are. Jennifer J. Carroll's ethnography is a story about public health and international efforts to quell the spread of HIV. Carroll focuses on Ukraine where the prevalence of HIV among people who use drugs is higher than in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and unpacks the arguments and myths surrounding medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in Ukraine. What she presents in Narkomania forces us to question drug policy, its uses, and its effects on "normal" citizens. Carroll uses her findings to explore what people who use drugs can teach us about the contemporary societies emerging in post-Soviet space. With examples of how MAT has been politicized, how drug use has been tied to ideas of "good" citizenship, and how vigilantism towards people who use drugs has occurred, Narkomania details the cultural and historical backstory of the situation in Ukraine. Carroll reveals how global efforts supporting MAT in Ukraine allow the ideas surrounding MAT, drug use, and HIV to resonate more broadly into international politics and echo into the heart of the Ukrainian public.