Narcan as biomedical panic: The war on overdose and the harms of harm reduction
| Published date | 01 February 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480620964779 |
| Date | 01 February 2022 |
| Author | Philip R Kavanaugh |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480620964779
Theoretical Criminology
© The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1362480620964779
journals.sagepub.com/home/tcr
Narcan as biomedical panic:
The war on overdose and the
harms of harm reduction
Philip R Kavanaugh
Penn State Harrisburg, USA
Abstract
As the opioid overdose crisis in the US persists, governments have coordinated with
drug companies to propagate the overdose reversal drug naloxone (Narcan) as a ‘kinder/
gentler’ state response, deriving from a supposedly progressive harm reduction ethos.
Drawing on Derrida’s deconstruction of pharmakon, I show how Narcan is rendered
paradoxical and terminal, diverting attention from the structural antecedents of opioid
addiction and resources for drug treatment while reproducing corporeal suffering in
those revived. I further highlight how Narcan is positioned in a wider array of regressive
governing practices that legitimate the state’s punitive drug war and demonization of
drug users. Narcan thus provides a useful opening between the state and contemporary
biomedicine to theorize how harm reduction and public health unfurl in insidious and
corrosive ways.
Keywords
Biopolitics, drug war, harm reduction, naloxone, Narcan, opioid crisis
Even the best of intentions to help or to serve the socially vulnerable can also simultaneously
perpetuate—or even exacerbate—oppression, humiliation and dependency of one kind or
another (Bourgois 2000: 168–169).
Corresponding author:
Philip R Kavanaugh, School of Public Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg, 777 W Harrisburg Pike, Middletown,
PA 17057, USA.
Email: prk114@psu.edu
964779TCR0010.1177/1362480620964779Theoretical CriminologyKavanaugh
research-article2020
Article
2022, Vol. 26(1) 132–152
In May 2019 paramedics, firefighters, and police responded to a 911 medical emergency at
the transit bus depot in downtown Appleton Wisconsin, where 47-year-old Ruben Houston
was found unresponsive. Paramedics determined Houston had suffered an opioid overdose
and administered two doses of the overdose reversal drug naloxone (Narcan). The first
dose reestablished breathing. The second restored consciousness. After walking himself off
the bus, Houston told paramedics he used some of his wife’s prescribed morphine for knee
pain and declined their suggestion to seek additional medical care. The situation escalated
from routine medical protocol when police questioned the just-revived Houston and
attempted a pat-down for weapons before allowing him back on the bus. Rebuffing their
search attempts and backing away, Houston drew a gun and fired at the questioning officer,
who retreated. Other police on the scene returned fire and chased Houston, who fired again,
fatally shooting a firefighter and wounding an officer before being shot multiple times by
police and taken into custody, dying later at an area hospital. Twenty-four total shots were
fired in a 30-second event so frenzied a bystander was also shot twice by police and hospi-
talized (Yang, 2019). Roughly a month following the tragedy, officials released body cam-
era footage of the incident and held a press conference where the county district attorney
confirmed police use of deadly force was justified. The tandem press conference and body
cam footage release generated an extended round of media coverage and went viral, featur-
ing on the extreme sports forum mixedmartialarts.com titled ‘Junkie kills firefighter (RIP)’,
and the gun enthusiast site tactical-life.com titled ‘WATCH: Appleton police kill suspect
who suddenly shoots, kills EMS’.
The story also featured in the Officer Safety section of lawofficer.com which identi-
fies as ‘the only major law enforcement publication and website operated by law enforce-
ment, for law enforcement’. The user comment thread below the story revealed an
inchoate resistance to, and palpable disgust with, Narcan as currently structured. For
some commenters, its propagation reflects a naive, misplaced empathy for opioid users.
In this view, Narcan saves those unworthy of living while condoning drug abuse, addic-
tion, and resulting harms. The following comment sequence is illustrative:
COMMENT 1: What a piece of shit lowlife drug user . . . I am glad he is gone. I worked in a
hospital for years and honestly . . . sad to say, but drug users are a major pain in the ass and
should be left to fend on their own and stop costing tax payers when they just keep repeating
the same old crap . . . Drug and alcohol abusers do NOT have a disease . . . it’s a lame excuse.
COMMENT 2: All frequent fliers, on their third strike need to be let go to the other side.
Communities will improve, homeless rates would decrease, drug houses will go back in the
market to be gutted and rebuilt, and the people who actually need Narcan, like the first time
drug doers or the folks who were going through rough times and took too big of a hit, will get
it, rather than it being wasted on these ‘scum of the earth, just looking for a fix while never
contributing to society’ ass people!!!! P.S. I am a first responder and frequenters need to be left
to GOD. Chasing that dragon has one inevitability. Death is the highest high so let them reach
it and be with the lord.
While the tragedy of the Appleton case combined with the felt-anonymity of the inter-
net may have emboldened commenters to express their frustrations in especially brutal
terms, similar sentiments have been articulated for years in the US by legislators and
133
Kavanaugh
To continue reading
Request your trial