The author conducted a three-year fieldwork with methadone users and their meetings with both health services and the police. In a small city like Oslo, methadone users are frequently stopped by the police since they are known by the police and/or know the drug seller community (information) and are frequently searched for drugs. If they have more than one user dose (e.g. methadone is also a drug re-sold on the streets), the police are tasked to report, eventually resulting in a court case (with more reports piling up) and shorter and longer sentences depending on the number of reported cases by the police (e.g. 15, 30 or 60 reported cases for one person). This is an ethnographic study using in particular participant observation to describe different stop and search situations – some more friendly and others deeply problematic to those experiencing them depending on the context.
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