Before harm reduction was some buzz word, the entire concept was rejected by many. Now that people can rebrand it for money/resources/clout, folks want to claim whatever nonsense they’re doing is harm reduction.

If your advocacy looks like policing ppl’s drug use, pushing abstinence on individuals who’ve not expressed desire for drug cessation, touting specific substances as a panacea/quick fix, then it’s not fact-based, not non-judgemental, and not compassionate–it’s not harm reduction.

Harm reduction focuses on positive change thru working with ppl w/o judgement, coercion, discrimination, or requiring that people stop using drugs as a precondition of support.

This includes but is not limited to:

– Information on safer drug use

– Overdose prevention centers/supervised consumption sites

– Syringe service programs

– Overdose prevention & reversal

– Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT)n- Housing n- Drug checking

– Legal services

Relevant harm reduction principles:

– 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

– Understands drug use as a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that encompasses a continuum of behaviors from severe use to total abstinence, and acknowledges that some ways of using drugs are much 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 ppl who use drugs and the communities in which they live in order to assist them in reducing attendant harm

– Recognizes that the realities of poverty, class, racism, social isolation, past trauma, sex-based discrimination, and other social inequalities affect ppl’s vulnerability to and capacity for effectively dealing with drug-related harm

Explaining root concepts to psychedelic/natural medicine chauvinists and sober saviors that could easily be Googled can be draining, but it’s also harm reduction. We’re technically all fighting the same [drug] war.