Don’t call us junkies or addicts: people who use illicit drugs say lingo matters
VANCOUVER — Calling someone a junkie was once the norm, but many people who use illicit drugs and those who treat them say the word addict is just as stigmatizing.
At the Crosstown Clinic, which provides pharmaceutical heroin treatment for people hooked on the opioid, someone has crossed out “addicts” on a notice posted by a group called the Addicts Union and substituted “patients.”
Dr. Scott MacDonald, lead physician at Crosstown, said the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders no longer lists the term addict.
“In the most recent version, I won’t even say it, the A word is not even in the professional language anymore,” he said in the cramped lobby of the clinic, which follows Switzerland’s example in providing pure heroin as a treatment option.