The origin of the concept of harm reduction was in the Netherlands in the ’70s when professional alternatives identified with the drug user’s perspective appeared, called the “model of acceptance”. In the late ’80s it began to be used in the region of Merseyside (England), in response to two main factors:
1. The problem of HIV infection among injecting drug users (IDUs);
2. The growing suspicion that the strategies taken so far had not improved the situation and in some cases had the opposite effect of increasing the harm associated with drug use.
A harm reduction strategy can involve a wide variety of tactics.
It can include changing the legal penalties associated with the drug use, improving the accessibility of drug users to treatment services, generating direct services for drug users and their social networks in communities, changing the drug user behavior through education, and also changing the social perception of drugs and the drug user.
Tags: drugs, HIV, injecting, networks, harm reduction, AIDS, drug users, HIV.
