The Open Secret: Drugs and Fishing in Georgia

Name

• Makala L. Collins, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow

Publication Date

2026

Major

Anthropology (B.A.)

Release Option

Open Access

Faculty Mentor

Jennifer Sweeney-Tookes

Abstract

Substance use and overdose deaths have been disproportionally disrupting families and communities in rural America. Increasing rates of drug use in these areas can be traced to the outsourcing of blue-collar work to outside of the United States, which economically restructured these areas by decreasing the profitability of generational industries. This is the story playing out in Georgia’s commercial shrimping industry and the communities it used to support. This research uses qualitative data collected over the past ten years to understand the perceptions and impacts of drug use on Georgia’s shrimping community. Using a lens of critical medical anthropology, environmental risk theory, and understandings of risk this paper examines: how the laborious conditions of shrimping and lack of profit create an environment for drug use to occur, how the already declining industry navigates working with a dependent crew labor force, and how overdose related deaths directly impact the future viability of shrimping’s future on the Georgia coast.

Thesis Summary

Substance use and overdose deaths have been disproportionately disrupting families and communities in rural America. Increasing rates of drug use in these areas can be traced to the outsourcing of blue-collar work to outside of the United States, which economically restructured these areas by decreasing the profitability of generational industries. This is the story playing out in Georgia’s commercial shrimping industry and the communities it used to support. This research uses qualitative data collected over the past ten years to understand the perceptions and impacts of drug use on Georgia’s shrimping community. Using a lens of critical medical anthropology, environmental risk theory, and understandings of risk this paper examines: how the laborious conditions of shrimping and lack of profit create an environment for drug use to occur, how the already declining industry navigates working with a dependent crew labor force, and how overdose related deaths directly impact the future viability of shrimping’s future on the Georgia coast. 

Recommended Citation

Collins, Makala L., "The Open Secret: Drugs and Fishing in Georgia" (2026). Honors College Theses. 1091.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/honors-theses/1091