Socialarbetarens roll i arbetet med ungdomar som använder cannabis : En kvalitativ studie om hur socialarbetare ser på ungdomar som använder cannabis och hur deser på sin roll i arbetet med dessa ungdomar

Sammanfattning

Cannabis use among young people has become an increasingly debated issue in Sweden,particularly in relation to shifting attitudes toward drugs and the country’s long-standing zerotolerancedrug policy. In this context, social workers occupy a central position in balancingsupport, prevention, and control when working with young people who use cannabis. Thisstudy aims to explore how social workers construct their understandings of young people whouse cannabis and how they describe their professional role in this work.The study is based on a qualitative research design and by a social constructionist perspective.Empirical data were collected through eight semi-structured interviews with social workersworking with young people in a medium-sized Swedish municipality. The material wastranscribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis, guided by labelling theory,concepts of destigmatisation, and Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective.The findings indicate that social workers express an explicit intention to avoid stereotypicaland stigmatizing portrayals, often emphasizing that cannabis use can occur among youngpeople from diverse social backgrounds. At the same time, descriptions of the young peopleencountered in practice frequently link cannabis use to psychosocial difficulties such asmental health problems, school failure, and social exclusion. Furthermore, social workersportray their professional role as relational and adaptive, with a strong focus on trust,individualisation, and youth participation, while simultaneously navigating structuralconstraints related to legislation, organisational frameworks, and zero-tolerance drug policy.The study concludes that social workers professional role is characterised by a tensionbetween destigmatising ambitions and institutional conditions that risk reproducing problemorientedconstructions of young cannabis users.