Drugs, Law Enforcement and Urban Marginalisation in Downtown Barcelona: The Challenges of Harm Reduction Policing.

This article examines police officers' perceptions of People Who Use Drugs (PWUD) in Barcelona and how these views shape drug policing practices, revealing a persistent gap between the emerging model of harm reduction policing (HRP) and ongoing police violence. Officers characterize PWUD as mentally ill, socially excluded criminals who threaten community security, a requalification that legitimizes their criminalization and the use of both physical and moral violence. The study identifies two main policing strategies—punitive enforcement and opportunistic evidence-gathering—both grounded in officers’ moral imaginaries and institutional mandates, which hinder the transformative potential of HRP. By applying the concept of moral violence, the article highlights how officers’ shared values and assumptions produce pervasive criminalization, reinforcing exclusion and obstructing harm reduction efforts despite Barcelona’s longstanding public health-oriented drug policies.