What is HARM REDUCTION?

“Harm reduction is a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use. Harm Reduction is a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs.” — Harm Reduction Coalition 

“(A) society in which the use and regulation of drugs are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights, in which people are no longer punished for what they put into their own bodies but only for crimes committed against others, and in which the fears, prejudices and punitive prohibitions of today are no more.” — Drug Policy Alliance

Harm reduction is not one policy, just as “science, compassion, health and human rights” is not one thing.

“Harm reduction incorporates a spectrum of strategies from safer use, to managed use to abstinence to meet drug users “where they’re at,” addressing conditions of use along with the use itself….(T)here is no universal definition of or formula for implementing harm reduction,” says the Harm Reduction Coalition.

Drug Policy Alliance founder Ethan Nadelmann, a former Princeton University professor, has been the nation’s most important harm reduction advocate. His TED talk is well worth your time.