The overarching goal of this project is to understand the experiences, behaviors and attitudes of racial/ethnic minorities in Tompkins County, New York and the broader Southern Tier region who use drugs, specifically prescription and “illicit” opioids, or who inject drugs. This project has four interweaving components focused on generating an understanding of the nature and scope of drug use among Black individuals in Tompkins County/the Southern Tier region, including: 1) an intergenerational literature review; 2) oral history interviews with people who use durgs; 3) semi-structured interviews with professional stakeholders in the region; and 4) a collaborative narrative photovoice project and web-based repository.
We’re conducting this study with the aim of generating knowledge about the social context and risk factors for drug use among rural Black individuals, a dramatically under-studied subpopulation of drug users, and identify and contextualize their specific experiences and culturall attitudes and drug use behaviors.