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The ‘harm reduction’ model failed to stop drugs in San Francisco

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In San Francisco, the so-called “harm-reduction” method of dealing with drug addiction is on the way out — and thank goodness. The lenient approach, which coddled drug addicts, only made the problem worse.

The National Harm Reduction Coalition defines “harm reduction” as “reducing negative consequences associated with drug use,” rather than fighting drug use itself. It is also “a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs.”

Harm reduction activists were once the darlings of City Hall. They began with noble intentions in the 1980s, when the HIV/AIDS crisis led the activists to propose meeting drug addicts “where they’re at.”

The problem was that letting addicts be addicts also meant leaving them on the streets to deteriorate and die. 

Today harm reduction is in a public-relations free fall. Politicians don’t want to support it; Residents hate it.

Of course, the philosophy sounded appealing on paper. Don’t be judgmental. The word “addict” is stigmatizing; use “substance use disorder” instead. Wait, did you say someone is getting “clean”? That implies users are dirty. Everyone is fine. That guy face-down on the sidewalk just needs Narcan and a free home.

And don’t you dare introduce such concepts as recovery, sobriety, and abstinence. That girl on a three-day meth binge will come to that conclusion on her own, if........

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