Citation

Wodak A. Alcohol Alcohol. 2014; 49 Suppl 1(Suppl 1): i30.

Affiliation

Emeritus Consultant, Alcohol and Drug Service, St. Vincent's Hospital, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/alcalc/agu052.145

PMID

25221104

Abstract

'Harm reduction' aims to reduce the health, social and economic costs of legal and illegal psychoactive drugs without necessarily reducing their consumption. For many decades the conventional approach to illicit drugs emphasized the elimination of consumption regardless of consequences. But the global drug market still continued to grow and become more dangerous. In many countries, deaths, disease, crime, corruption and violence soared. Harm reduction, for long a standard approach in public health and many other fields, attracted increasing interest in the 1980s after the recognition that HIV spreading among people who inject drugs represented a severe threat to the general population. Harm reduction measures in many countries easily controlled this problem. In contrast to supply control dominated approaches, many harm reduction interventions have been shown to be effective, safe and cost-effective. Harm reduction approaches to alcohol in licensed premises include the replacement of glass with shatterproof plastic drinking vessels and the use of furniture too heavy to lift. Harm reduction approaches to tobacco include nicotine replacement and e-cigarettes. The academic debate over harm reduction is now over. By 2012, 93 countries had accepted harm reduction. Japan remains one of the diminishing few countries still resistant to harm reduction.

Language: en