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Abstract Background Opioid-related overdose death is a public health epidemic in much of the USA, yet little is known about how people who use opioids (PWUO) experience overdose deaths in their social networks. We explore these experiences through a qualitative study of opioid-related overdose death bereavement among PWUO. Methods We recruited 30 adults who inject opioids from a syringe service program in the Midwestern USA and interviewed them using a semi-structured guide that addressed experiences of opioid use, opioid-related overdose, and overdose reversal via the medication naloxone. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically. Findings Participants described overdose death as ever-present in their social worlds. Most (approximately 75%) reported at least one overdose death in their social network, and many came to consider death an inevitable end of opioid use. Participants described grief shaped by complex social relations and mourning that was interrupted due to involvement with social services and criminal legal systems. They also reported several ways that overdose deaths influenced their drug use, with some increasing their use and others adopting safer drug use practices. Despite the high prevalence of overdose deaths in their social networks, only one participant reported receiving grief support services. Discussion Findings underscore the need for interventions that not only maintain life, such as naloxone distribution, but also improve quality of life by attending to grief related to overdose death bereavement. We discuss policies and practices with the potential to address the unique psychological, social, and structural challenges of grief for this population.
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This content will become publicly available on June 26, 2026
‘It Has Cost Us Blood’: How Bolivian movements characterize death in protest
Bolivian movement leaders often draw attention to their region, city, or sector’s participation in larger collective protests. While this can take the form of showing up in large numbers, they speak with a special reverence for those who lost their lives in protest. This paper considers the cultural meaning and practical import of deaths in protest for Bolivian social movements—and specifically the way that collective groups pay a price for social progress through death—by drawing on our digital archive of over 650 deaths in protest, as well as scholarly and published interviews with movement leaders and participants. First, we consider how movement participants speak of death, loss, and sacrifice, drawing attention to how lives lost are remembered as sacrifices, as a price, and as a form of collective participation in common struggle. Second, we highlight a variety of events in which government intransigence towards a protest was replaced by immediate concessions after one or several deaths. These instances are one way in which death and loss during protest can be emotionally and socially powerful, changing and even inverting prior dynamics.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2116778
- PAR ID:
- 10659626
- Publisher / Repository:
- Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
- Date Published:
- Volume:
- 15
- ISSN:
- 2994-9378
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 57-62
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Bolivia political violence death social movements
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: 4MB Other: pdf
- Size(s):
- 4MB
- Location:
- Panama City, Panama
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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