Sammanfattning
In Norway 260 fatal and over 5 000 non-fatal overdoses occur on average each year, mainly among drug users who inject opioids. Many overdoses occur in periods when the drug user feels hopeless and indifferent to whether he/she survives or dies. In previous research, this has been interpreted as a result of a conscious denial of risk or as a conscious will to take higher risks. In this article, this interpretation is challenged, in the light of user experiences and research on how severely addicted drug users in periods characterized by total indifference, don’t have any experience of the future. Without any experience of a future, they can neither have any conscious experience of risk. Risk becomes irrelevant.