A new Swedish study shows how people who use prohibited drugs adjust their appearance, behavior and movement patterns to avoid police officers and security guards. The participants describe a daily life in which control is constantly present — even when no police are visible.
The study was conducted by researchers at Stockholm University and Linnaeus University and published in International Journal of Drug Policy. The researchers interviewed 20 people with long experience of prohibited drugs and repeated contact with police officers or security guards.
Rather than asking only what drug policing does to people, the researchers examine what people do to navigate, avoid and resist control.
Police control is part of everyday life
In Sweden, both possession and personal use of narcotics are criminalized. That has led a large share of police drug work to focus on minor drug offences. According to the statistics cited by the researchers, 94 percent of reported drug offences in 2024 concerned possession or personal use.
The study is based on interviews conducted in 2025 at two low-threshold services in Stockholm. Half of the participants were recruited at a nonprofit drop-in center offering food, hygiene and access to digital services. The other half were recruited at Stockholm’s needle and syringe exchange program.
The participants were on average 49 years old and most were men. Nearly half were unhoused, and many of the others lived in supported housing or trial apartments. Amphetamine was the most common drug in the group, but heroin, cannabis, benzodiazepines and alcohol also appeared.
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Bodies and clothes become suspicious
The participants described searches, identity checks, questioning and the risk of being taken away as recurring parts of everyday life.
It was not only possession of drugs that could draw attention. Clothing, posture, bad teeth, low body weight and objects such as backpacks or tools were also seen as possible signs of suspicion.
One participant said he was stopped while walking between two suburbs at night with a backpack. Another described trying to eat regularly despite homelessness and heavy opioid use, because a thin and undernourished appearance made store staff and security guards begin to follow him.
The researchers describe how ordinary circumstances — a backpack at night, closed eyes on a train, or a thin body in a shopping mall — could be turned into signs of suspected drug use.
This led participants to try to control how they looked and behaved. Some avoided open drug scenes and certain support services so they would not be associated with other people police regarded as drug users.
Resisting the label “addict”
A central finding is that participants resisted the identity they felt police and society imposed on them.
They did not want to be described as irrational, violent or incapable of making their own decisions. Instead, they described themselves as calm, respectful, honest and non-violent.
Several saw their drug use as a way to function or feel better. According to the participants, drugs were used to gain energy, concentrate, manage withdrawal or relieve mental and physical symptoms.
They also drew a clear distinction between personal use and crimes that harm other people. Using a prohibited drug was seen as a crime without a direct victim, unlike violence, burglary or theft.
The participants also said that Sweden’s criminalization did not change whether they used drugs or not.
Surveillance creates exclusion
For several participants, control was not only about the risk of arrest or fines. It also affected their sense of being allowed to exist in public space.
A homeless woman said she sought out basements, hidden spots and dark corners because she felt unwelcome everywhere. She described it not as a way to commit crimes in peace, but as a consequence of constantly being chased away.
Another participant said security guards often followed him in stores. He felt they had already decided he would commit crimes. That suspicion could in turn make him so provoked that he reacted in the way the guards expected.
The researchers therefore argue that surveillance can sometimes work as a self-fulfilling prophecy. A person is treated as a future problem, reacts to that treatment, and then the reaction is used to confirm the original suspicion.
Knowledge is used as protection
The participants are not described as passive recipients of control. They had developed extensive knowledge of how police officers and security guards operate and used different strategies to reduce the risk of intervention.
One common strategy was not to show fear or nervousness when police approached. Suddenly looking away, changing direction or speeding up could itself be seen as suspicious.
Others stressed the importance of staying calm even when they felt provoked. By not becoming aggressive, they could avoid escalation and at the same time challenge the idea that people who use drugs are automatically violent.
Participants also used knowledge of laws, rights and official routines to question interventions. That could mean refusing to leave public transport when they had a valid ticket, or protesting a drug test they believed lacked legal support.
The study also includes serious accounts of perceived excessive force and compelled bodily samples. The researchers did not, however, verify those incidents against police reports, court rulings or other external sources. The material consists of the participants’ own accounts and experiences.
Rare moments when roles change
Most participants found it hard to imagine a life in which they still used drugs but were not also subject to control.
The study nevertheless includes a few unusual situations in which the usual power balance changed.
In one case, a police officer asked a participant to use his crowbar to quickly open a door where two people were suspected of having overdosed. The participant then helped administer naloxone.
The crowbar, which in another context would likely have raised suspicion, instead became a life-saving tool. The person who was normally treated as an object of control was briefly recognized as knowledgeable, capable and necessary.
The researchers see the event as an example of how people who use drugs can be treated as full citizens without first having to abandon their identity or adapt to an ideal of respectability.
The study does not apply to everyone who uses drugs
The researchers stress that the results cannot be generalized to all people who use prohibited drugs in Sweden.
The sample consisted of 20 people in Stockholm. Most were middle-aged, many were homeless or socially vulnerable, and all had long experience with drugs. The group did not include less visible recreational users, such as people who use cannabis or other drugs in private settings without contact with low-threshold services.
The study therefore cannot show how common a given form of treatment is, or how Swedish cannabis users in general experience police. It does, however, provide a detailed picture of how people who often remain in police view describe the impact of control on their lives.
The researchers want decriminalization
The researchers conclude that criminalization affects much more than the risk of prosecution alone.
It shapes people’s choices of clothing, places, social circles and behavior. It also affects how they see themselves and whether they feel they belong in society.
When personal use and possession are prohibited, people who use drugs are effectively guilty in advance, while police officers and security guards decide when the law should be applied strictly and when compassion or informal tolerance is warranted.
According to the researchers, that creates unequal power relations, unpredictability and a risk of arbitrary interventions.
The study’s final recommendation is clear: people’s chances of developing independent and strengthened identities would improve if possession and personal use of drugs were no longer criminalized.
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