Harm reduction

Harm reduction is an approach that reduces the health and social harms associated with risky behavior without requiring that the behavior stop completely.

Naloxone: A medication that rapidly reverses opioid overdose by blocking opioid receptors. It can prevent death from opioid overdose without requiring abstinence.
Risk compensation: A behavioral response in which people take greater risks when they feel safer. Harm-reduction measures must account for the possibility that perceived safety changes behavior.
HIV/AIDS epidemic: The global epidemic of HIV infection and AIDS that began in the late twentieth century. Community responses to HIV helped establish needle exchange as a public-health strategy.
Abstinence: The deliberate avoidance of a particular activity, such as substance use or sexual activity. Harm reduction can reduce risks even when abstinence is not chosen or feasible.
Needle-exchange programme: A service that provides sterile injecting equipment and collects used equipment. Sterile supplies reduce infection risks for people who inject drugs.
Overdose prevention: Measures that reduce the likelihood or severity of drug overdose and its consequences. It is a direct pathway through which harm-reduction services prevent deaths.
Junkiebond: A Dutch drug-user union founded in 1981 that organized around health and rights. Its organizing helped launch early needle-exchange efforts in the Netherlands.
Prohibitionism: A policy approach that seeks to ban or criminalize specified substances or activities. Prohibitionism prioritizes suppression, whereas harm reduction prioritizes reducing resulting harms.
Opioid agonist therapy: Treatment using medications such as methadone or buprenorphine to reduce opioid withdrawal and craving. It lowers overdose and infection risks while allowing continued treatment over time.
Infectious disease transmission: The spread of pathogens between hosts through routes such as blood, sexual contact, or respiratory droplets. Sterile equipment and safer-sex tools interrupt transmission routes linked to risky behavior.

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