Vernacular and discursive harm reduction: an ethnography of an online drug community

The process began with the problematic situation: statutory members of the Blue server were exhausted by their own concern that members of the community were being hurt by their drug use. As a solution, members who had already participated in other drug communities, acting as moral entrepreneurs, proposed implementing the HR ethos on the Blue server. The statutory members derived rules from this ethos that created a vernacular HR specifically adapted to the Blue community. In particular, they established rules for discursive HR which enabled them to set boundaries for conversations without judging members' practices. In conclusion, drug enthusiasts in the Blue community took care of each other, and developed a vernacular HR with the aim of ensuring that being part of their community was beneficial for its members.