ABSTRACT
This chapter defines the notion of struggle within the public injecting habitus. Structural opposition to public injecting typically took the form of dispersal and displacement procedures. These aspects of intervention and drug control were conducted by local authority departments as well as by businesses located within the private sector. Dispersal techniques that aimed to avert injecting drug users accessing particular premises were noted throughout all locations of the study. This form of environmental drug control was predominantly connected to the contestation of public toilet facilities. These facilities included street-based toilets managed by the local authority, private sector amenities and those within business premises. Frontline service personnel employed within locations equipped with blue lights typically commended the apparent success they brought in preventing drug use. They also suspected that drug users may continue to frequent such amenities if they had 'marked-out their veins' with ink prior to entering the toilets.
