HARM REDUCTION: AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE FAILURE OF THE WAR ON DRUGS

Abstract

This article aims to undertake a reflection on the Harm Reduction model in drug use as opposed to the ‘war on drugs’ model. Through analysis of texts which discuss the topic, it is ascertained that Harm Reduction, although it arose in the early years of the last century in the United Kingdom, was only consolidated as a health strategy for drug users with the advent of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the beginning of the 1980s, related to the use of injectable drugs, with its actions being focused on syringe exchange. However, at the present time its perspective of minimizing harm in other situations of drug use has expanded, and it is now configured as a more viable alternative in the light of the confirmed failure of the hegemonic model of the war on drugs.

Keywords

• Harm reduction
• Illicit drugs
• Public health