Essay On Harm Reduction

Harm reduction is a way of promoting health and reducing the spread of disease by using a set of strategies and ideas aimed at limiting negative outcomes related to drug abuse. Harm Reduction is also a set of policies for social justice used to manage behaviors and based on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of the people who use drugs. Human reduction is used to manage both legal and illegal behaviors. Harm reduction is non-judgmental and focuses on taking small steps to reduce harm rather than on completely eliminating drug use. Completely stopping may or may not be the end goal. Avoiding judgment about potentially risky behaviors acknowledging the client's role in decision-making about his or her health behavior is an important component to implementing the harm reduction strategy.
Most harm reduction programs are educational campaigns or agencies that aim to reduce drug-related harm and the spread of disease. Needle-exchange programs reduce the chances of drug users sharing the syringes and using them more than once. Syringe-sharing has been linked to infections such hepatitis C and HIV can spread from user to user through the reuse of needles contaminated with a user’s infected blood. Agencies that are medically supervised are designed to handle the problems related to drug use and provide a clean, sterile and stress-free environment for drug users. The agencies provide sterile hypodermic needles, education about drugs and basic health care, treatment referrals, and access to medical staff. Drug replacement therapy is another example of harm reduction. Replacing an illegal drug, such as heroin, with a lesser opioid like methadone is usually used. The drug is taken …show more content…
Those in opposition of harm reduction usually believe that allowing risky or illegal behavior sends a message that such behaviors are acceptable and do not reduce harm over the long