Morphine in India: An Ethnographic Study
Lead Research Organisation:
King's College London
Department Name: Social Science, Health and Medicine
Abstract
Access to opioid medication such as morphine is a global concern. These are medications known to be effective in easing severe pain, but they are also known to be addictive. The high-level of opiate addiction in the USA is perhaps the most visible example of this issue. Elsewhere however, these medications can be extremely difficult to acquire, even in cases of dire need. India is the only licit exporter of opium, yet within the country itself only a tiny fraction of the population has access to morphine to treat severe pain. Focussing on the state of Himachal Pradesh, this project will interrogate the multiple factors underlying the uneven availability of this drug, and analyse how this uncertainty shapes the lives of those living with and without it.
In order to do this, a multi-sited ethnographic approach will be used. In taking morphine as an ethnographic object, this study will engage with three key research questions: I) What is the contemporary 'biography' of morphine in this location - how does it gain or lose status, how is it imagined, regulated and consumed? II) How does the history of opium production in this state influence this contemporary formulation? III) How do individuals interact with and medicate pain when adequate medication is frequently unavailable, and how does this interaction shape lived experience?
This project will therefore contribute to an anthropological understanding of pharmaceuticals, opium production, as well as pain and addiction. Further, it will provide an empirically grounded contribution to the ongoing global debates about the availability and use of opiate medication.
In order to do this, a multi-sited ethnographic approach will be used. In taking morphine as an ethnographic object, this study will engage with three key research questions: I) What is the contemporary 'biography' of morphine in this location - how does it gain or lose status, how is it imagined, regulated and consumed? II) How does the history of opium production in this state influence this contemporary formulation? III) How do individuals interact with and medicate pain when adequate medication is frequently unavailable, and how does this interaction shape lived experience?
This project will therefore contribute to an anthropological understanding of pharmaceuticals, opium production, as well as pain and addiction. Further, it will provide an empirically grounded contribution to the ongoing global debates about the availability and use of opiate medication.
People |
ORCID iD |
Nickolas Surawy Stepney (Student) |
Publications
Surawy-Stepney N
(2020)
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology
Surawy Stepney N
(2020)
Eating my words
in Medicine Anthropology Theory
Studentship Projects
Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ES/P000703/1 | 30/09/2017 | 29/09/2027 | |||
2105071 | Studentship | ES/P000703/1 | 30/09/2018 | 30/12/2021 | Nickolas Surawy Stepney |
Description | The aim of this project was to gain a greater understanding of the ways in which the drug morphine circulates in northern India. Prior to this study, public health articles primarily noted only that this drug was largely 'absent' from this context. This study displayed that in fact the material movement of this drug is very specific, from certain pharmaceutical companies to only certain hospitals, and then largely to cancer patients. But it is also the first study to examine the 'immaterial' or 'symbolic' circulations of the drug; how it is imagined by various groups (doctors, regulators, pharmaceutical companies) in this context, and how these imaginations limit the material circulations of the drug. |
Exploitation Route | As I write the outcomes up for publication, I intend them to be put to use by scholars within the anthropology of pharmaceuticals (they display how a focus on 'absence' can be productive for the field), but also by those working in the palliative care movement within India. |
Sectors | Healthcare |
Description | As yet they have not, but in my current position undertaking post-doctoral work on cancer in India, I intend to present these findings to organisations working in palliative care in India - it was undertaken in a region that they do not currently heavily work in. |
Sector | Healthcare |
Description | Visiting Researcher in the Department of Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU, Delhi |
Organisation | Jawaharlal Nehru University, India |
Country | India |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Prof Rama Baru of JNU aided in the undertaking of fieldwork for this project |
Collaborator Contribution | Prof Rama Baru of JNU aided in the undertaking of fieldwork for this project |
Impact | None |
Start Year | 2019 |