The Principles Of Harm Reduction
Harm Reduction:
·
Accepts, for better and for 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.
·
Understands drug use as a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon that
encompasses a continuum of behaviors from severe abuse to total abstinence, and
acknowledges that some ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others.
·
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.
·
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.
·
Ensures that drug users and those with a history of drug use
routinely have a real voice in the creation of programs and policies designed to
serve them.
·
Affirms drugs users themselves as the primary agents of reducing
the harms of their drug use, and seeks to empower users to share information and
support each other in strategies which meet their actual conditions of use.
·
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.
- Does not attempt to minimize or ignore the real and tragic harm and danger associated with licit and illicit drug use.
|
Thanks To The Harm Reduction Coalition |
