Harm Reduction Policies

Harm reduction is an approach to drugs, drug users, and drug-related problems that aims to reduce the harms that drugs do to society, to the drug user, and to collateral “casualties” such as the families, partners, and potential victims of drug users. Harm reduction recognizes that a “drug-free society” will likely never be an actuality and that it may be far more useful as a matter of policy and practicality to deal forthrightly and honestly with reality as it is, not as some would have it be. Harm reduction, thus, purports to deal with the world as it is. Therefore, this approach attempts to deal pragmatically with the adverse consequences that legal and illegal drugs have on health, society, and the economy. In general, it ...