Reflexiones autoetnográficas sobre el uso de heroína en Colombia y su relación con los mundos delictivos

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between the use of heroin in Colombia and the criminal worlds from autoethnographic reflection, given the author personal experience with heroin. To do this, a qualitative methodology was developed, applying the methodological framework of autoethnography through autobiographical writing. The results were captured in five thematic nuclei: (1. Preamble "Ceremonies of degradation and monstrosities"; 2. Trap houses, red-light districts, delinquency and the popular; 3. Trap houses, between the popular and the liminal; 4. Outside the trap houses, the author became a criminal; 5. What is crime and who is considered a criminal? In the conclusions, emphasis is made on how the management of drugs in Colombia and its legal implications determine that in the social imaginary there is a linear relationship between the use of heroin and crime, turning the heroin user into a criminal by law. It is also highlighted how the burden of the stigma of heroin use is relentless even within the same spaces shared with users of other substances whose legal framework has justified their greater social acceptance such as marijuana and cocaine, relegating heroin users to liminal spaces such as trap houses where criminal acts such as trafficking, robbery, and murder are witnessed but where the user does not necessarily commit these crimes, and situations where users are totally exposed, such as begging or prostitution. Finally, it is pointed out how trap houses, being at the same time dark and gloomy spaces, also become spaces that protect from inquisitive glances, a protection space out of which users are exposed to be identified as criminals, judged and mistreated just for being recognized as heroin addicts and carry the substance. 

Keywords:

Uso de heroína

delincuencia

autoetnografía

autobiografía

Heroin use

delinquency

autoethnography

autobiography

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