Broadening the discourse on intersectional drug use stigma: considerations for older adults

Despite the recognized increases in substance use among older adults, there remain persistent societal assumptions that older people do not use drugs. In addition to perpetuating the invisibility of this issue, these assumptions also reveal critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of how intersectional stigma is enacted at the nexus of drug use and aging. The purpose of this paper is to examine how aging stigma and drug use stigma can be understood and conceptualized through existing stereotype and stigma frameworks, while also drawing attention to the gaps in our understanding of these stigmatizing processes and to the notable tensions in the processes that underlie these two forms of stigma. To conclude, we maintain that the nexus of aging and drug use stigma produces an epistemology of ignorance, where there is an erasure of knowledge regarding older adults who use drugs. Implications for social work research and practice are discussed.