Harm Reduction--Leave the life of Drugs and Addiction today.....

The purpose of this blog is to describe what harm reduction is, how it developed, how it works, and why it is becoming a major approach in the addictive behaviors field. Based on the principles of public health, Harm reduction is set of strategies designed to reduce the harmful effects of addictive behavior for both drug consumers and the communities in which they live.

Harm reduction is a public health alternative to the criminal and disease models of drug use and addiction. Harm reduction is a pragmatic and humanistic approach to diminishing the individual and social harms associated with drug use, especially the risk of HIV infection. It seeks to lessen the problems associated with drug use through methodologies that safeguard the dignity, humanity and human rights of people who use drugs.

This approach is based on the fact that despite years of trying, there are no known effective interventions for eliminating drug use or drug-related problems/ill effects  in any community, city, or country. In most cultures, adopting a harm reduction approach requires a shift in thinking away from deeply rooted, and understandable, long-term idealistic goals of eliminating drug use and getting all drug users to become drug free.
 DRUG ADDICTION is Chronic Disease like DIABETES AND HYPERTENSION and RELAPSES are meant to happen in this disease also and zero tolerance is not possible. Harm Reduction simply recognizes that for many drug users these are distant goals and that services to reduce the risk in the interim are therefore essential if personal and public health disasters are to be avoided. Recognizing the reality of drug use, harm reduction programs measure success in terms of individual and community quality of life and health and not in relation to levels of drug use.
Given the high individual and social costs associated with AIDS, measures to prevent the spread of HIV are at the forefront of harm reduction priorities.