Opioids, including the best known — morphine, heroin and fentanyl — have been gaining popularity over the last few decades. Although officially banned, these painkillers still find their way into prisons either via drones or with visitors. The result is that more and more prisoners are using opioids.

Correctional services have taken several measures to prevent opioids from making their way into prisons. But unfortunately, the war on drugs has so far failed to prevent the production, trafficking and use of opioids.

On the contrary, it looks like the pursuit of a drug-free world has caused far more harm so far than the drugs themselves. The negative consequences of outlawing them are numerous, including high overdose rates and transmission of infections such as HIV and hepatitis C.

I am a doctoral student in psychology at the Université de Montréal under the supervision of Christophe Huỳnh, researcher at the Institut universitaire sur les dépendances (University Institute on Addictions), and Jean-Sébastien Fallu, researcher and associate professor at the School of Psychoeducation, Université de Montréal. My research focuses on how correctional officers perceive and interact with harm-reduction services in prisons.

When drug criminalization failed, the Correctional Service of Canada changed its strategy. Rather than advocating total abstinence from drugs among prisoners, it now seeks to reduce the harms associated with drug use.

Harm reduction aims to limit the harmful effects of existing policies and the risks associated with drug use. It is necessarily intended to reduce or stop........

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