An intersectional approach is one that considers how a person’s multiple, overlapping identities interact to create unique experiences of privilege or oppression (Crenshaw, 1991). People who use drugs or who participate in criminalized or stigmatized activities “are often part of multiple minority groups, compounding the effect of their identities on their experiences and increasing the likelihood that they will experience oppression in systems” (Irvin, 2024, para. 1). Thus, when we interrogate the role of a social determinant of health or risk factor in promoting certain outcomes, it is important to consider intersectionality.
For example, although the criminalization of drugs affects all of society–because people who use drugs exist in virtually all communities–it impacts certain groups more negatively than others. Due to a history of systemic anti-Black racism and an over-policing of their communities, Black people are significantly over-represented in Ontario correctional facilities and have historically been arrested at disproportionately high rates for drug possession (Khenti, 2014; Owusu-Bempah et al., 2023). This does not reflect any meaningful differences in the rates of substance use between racial groups; rather, it highlights the differential impact that the ’war on drugs’ has on different groups (Lopez, 2015).
