Harm Reduction

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Principals of harm reduction, as outlined by the National Harm Reduction Coalition, include:

  1. Accepts, for better or worse, that licit and illicit drug use is part of our world and chooses to work to minimize its harmful effects rather than simply ignore or condemn them
  2. Understands drug use as a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon that encompasses a continuum of behaviors from severe use to total abstinence, and acknowledges that some ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others
  3. Establishes quality of individual and community life and well-being — not necessarily cessation of all drug use — as the criteria for successful interventions and policies
  4. Calls for the non-judgmental, non-coercive provision of services and resources to people who use drugs and the communities in which they live in order to assist them in reducing attendant harm
  5. Ensures that people who use drugs and those with a history of drug use routinely have a real voice in the creation of programs and policies designed to serve them
  6. Affirms people who use drugs (PWUD) themselves as the primary agents of reducing the harms of their drug use and seeks to empower PWUD to share information and support each other in strategies which meet their actual conditions of use
  7. Recognizes that the realities of poverty, class, racism, social isolation, past trauma, sex-based discrimination, and other social inequalities affect both people’s vulnerability to and capacity for effectively dealing with drug-related harm
  8. Does not attempt to minimize or ignore the real and tragic harm and danger that can be associated with illicit drug use
  1. In the news

Kevin Ergil: Combating drug abuse with harm reduction (Published in The Citizen, 2020)

Harm reduction is a well-established approach to the problem of substance abuse, particularly opioid addiction. Among its core principles, harm reduction "accepts, for better and or worse, that licit and illicit drug use is part of our world and chooses to work to minimize its harmful effects rather than simply ignore or condemn them” (Harm Reduction Coalition, 2020). The harm reduction model was first developed in the 1980s by individuals who saw the punitive approaches of the criminal justice system and abstinence-only recovery programs as factors that increased the stigma, risk and harm associated with addiction. Harm reduction advocates considering drug addiction as a public health issue that affects not just the drug user, but their friends, family and community. Harm reduction is a method to reduce the personal, social, health and economic costs of drug use with the ultimate goal of recovery from addiction...

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