Painful lives: Chronic pain experience among people who use illicit drugs in Montreal (Canada)

The current opioid crisis in North America has strengthened the boundary between “genuine chronic pain patients” and “drug addicts,” though these categories are not mutually exclusive. Despite its high prevalence —more than double the general population rate— chronic pain among people who use illicit drugs (PWUD) remains an overlooked issue in both health and social sciences. Using the theoretical framework of sociology of illness experience,...