{"id":925,"date":"2016-04-12T12:02:26","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T17:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=925"},"modified":"2016-04-12T15:50:43","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T20:50:43","slug":"harm-reduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2016\/04\/12\/harm-reduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing Harm Reduction to America’s Heroin Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Urban<\/a>
Urban Seed, an Australian organization, considers harm reduction programs part of their mission to help disadvantaged communities. Flickr CC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mayor of Ithaca, New York recently proposed <\/a>a facility for people to use heroin and other injected drugs safely. It\u2019s part of a larger plan to focus on prevention and treatment of drug use, and the facility\u2019s trained medical staff would provide clean needles, referrals to treatment programs, and naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote. Today\u2019s opioid epidemic<\/a>—which kills an estimated 78 Americans every day<\/a>—has shocked many, given that other forms of illicit drug use have generally declined in prevalence and mortality during recent decades. Ithaca\u2019s plan falls under the umbrella of \u201charm reduction\u201d approaches, which attempt to mitigate personal and societal harm from drug and alcohol use. Social science shows us how and why these programs work.<\/p>\n

Supervised injection facilities are relatively recent, originating in the Dutch and Swiss harm reduction movements of the 1970s and \u201880s. The first site in North America opened in Vancouver in 2003 and is linked to drastic declines <\/a>in public injection and overdose deaths. Today a number of supervised drug consumption rooms operate throughout northern Europe, Canada, and Australia. Ithaca’s would be the first in the U.S.<\/h5>\n