Disclaimer: This information is to inform the general public of what others consider harm reduction. Our belief is this is not a safe practice for someone seeking recovery and abstinence from substance abuse and or addiction.
Principles of Harm Reduction
Harm Reduction is a movement built on a belief in the rights of people who use drugs.
It’s purpose is to protect the rights of people who use substances and to minimize the social, legal, and medical impacts of drug use.
It encourages us to move beyond the stigma and criminalization of drug use to see the full humanity and potential of people that society has deemed deviant, dangerous, and disposable.
Harm reduction incorporates a spectrum of strategies that includes safer use, managed use, abstinence, meeting people who use drugs “where they’re at,” and addressing conditions of use along with the use itself. Because harm reduction demands that interventions and policies designed to serve people who use drugs reflect specific individual and community needs, there is no universal definition of or formula for implementing harm reduction.
Harm reduction intentionally avoids assuming that people who use substances MUST want to achieve abstinence or even recovery. It includes providing information, services, and facilities that make drug use legal and safer and also provides free medical and social services.
The Dangers of Long-Term Harm Reduction
Addicts are not choosing treatment. They are choosing to have the best of both worlds.
Harm reduction programs exist for several types of drugs, including opioids, alcohol, stimulants, ecstasy, and marijuana. They range from needle exchange sites to managed alcohol programs to drug-testing kits at music festivals. Studies have found many of these methods to be effective. But critics see the programs as encouraging drug use and keeping people addicted to drugs.
Harm reduction intentionally avoids assuming that people who use substances MUST want to achieve abstinence or even recovery.
The movement means that communities are accepting - for better or worse - that licit and illicit drug use is part of our world and we are choosing to minimize its harmful effects rather than simply ignoring or condemning them. This gives rise to cartels and drug dealers knowing there are very few consequences if at all.
What it means for the addict:
✔ Can continue to get high
✔ No consequences to their actions
✔ Everything paid for at taxpayer expense
✔ No incentive to have or keep a job
✔ Receives free Narcan
✔ Receives free needle exchange
✔ Receives free drug test kits (fentanyl test strips)
Long-Term Health Risks For Drug Users - Particularly Opioid Users
It may be hard to tell whether a person is high or experiencing an overdose. If you aren’t sure, treat it like an overdose - you could save a life.
✔ Respiratory issues
✔ Cardiovascular complications including myocardial infarction
✔ Serious effects on endocrine, immune gastrointestinal and neural systems
✔ Bowel dysfunction
✔ Super tolerance: the increase of pain over the years.
✔ Decreased muscle mass
✔ Decreased levels of sex hormones (methadone maintenance)
✔ Depression and anxiety
✔ Sleep disorder
✔ Increase in fractures
✔ Infection increases
✔ Cancer growth
Examples of Other Types of Harm Reduction
Harm reduction has a variety of meanings and health benefits. The meanings should be defined in different categories or sub-categories.
✔ Birth control and condoms
✔ Sunscreen
✔ Speed limits
✔ Epi-pen (for food allergies)
✔ Fire extinguishers
✔ Seatbelts
✔ Athletic gear
✔ Covid masks
✔ Protective gloves