There is MUCH less tension these days between harm reduction (HR) advocates and treatment providers. HR advocates confronted treatment providers with legitimate questions about their thresholds for accessing and staying in care. More recently, the opioid overdose crisis pretty dramatically changed the calculus. As a result, most treatment providers are using harm reduction approaches and … Continue reading Drug-free recovery as fantasy?
Bill White has a new paper on Recovery and Harm Reduction in Philadelphia. Here’s a quote he offered in a blog post introducing the paper: Traditional harm reduction programs have pioneered low threshold services, but they have often also been characterized by low expectations. Our vision is to expand low threshold services that at the same … Continue reading Recovery and Harm Reduction
The American Journal of Public Heath (behind a paywall) has a new study looking at 2 year trajectories of residents in a “wet shelter”. The found that the residents reduced their drinking by 40%. Reducing drinking in these cases is a very good thing. To me, there are several important questions but the first might … Continue reading Missing the point
Responses to this will be interesting to watch. I’m certain that people who object will be accused of moral panic or something like it. I’m open to non-judgmental outreach harm reduction for the purpose of building relationships and gradually engaging people into recovery. I’d like to know how these materials are being used. Are they … Continue reading Heroin for dummies
I saw a Facebook comment today referencing “freedom to” and “freedom from”. It got me thinking about positive and negative liberty and harm reduction. Negative liberty is the absence of obstacles, barriers or constraints. One has negative liberty to the extent that actions are available to one in this negative sense. Positive liberty is the … Continue reading Positive liberty and addiction
Finally. Someone calls Vancouver’s mayor out on his apparent indifference to recovery. Here’s the mayor’s attitude toward addiction recovery: Now, addicts are like me. [Note: The mayor is quadrapalegic due to a skiing accident when he was 19.] They have a disability. And they will always have this disability. It is a waste of time … Continue reading Mayor Sullivan Wimps out on Drug Treatment
Here’s a provocative anti drug war manifesto from the Drug Policy Alliance, the most prominent harm reduction advocacy and drug decriminalization group in the U.S. There’s a lot to agree with. Unfortunately, they resort to an advesarial with us/against us approach, for example: “People who prohibit clean syringes to reduce the spread of HIV have … Continue reading The Top 10 Things I Know About Drugs
recoveryreview.blog 