I’ve been thinking a lot about the principles of harm reduction. Harm reduction is largely associated with drug use and, in particular, practices that reduce the risk of disease and death for people who use drugs. It’s things like providing clean needles to reduce the risk of transmitting HIV and hepatitis, and teaching people how to use drugs more safely to avoid overdose. 

Harm reduction offers practices and principles that can save lives. Given the enormous loss of life connected with the US overdose crisis, it is encouraging to see that federal leadership and the Biden administration are overcoming the typical mainstream political aversion to harm reduction (because it doesn’t force people to be abstinent in order to get help) and are beginning to provide support for harm reduction. 

I wonder if commitment to harm reduction could become even more widespread if more of us appreciated the broader application of harm reduction in our lives. I wrote an article about this for Filter magazine, “Can the Pandemic Usher in a New Age of Harm Reduction Awareness?” The ever-insightful writer Maia Szalavitz made similar points in her recent op-ed in the New York Times, “How Drug Users Developed a Key Approach to Fighting Covid.”  

I just got back back to Denmark (where I live) from my first visit to the US in over 18-months – since the last Christmas season before the start of the COVID pandemic. It was dizzying to absorb the sudden openness in my home turf, New York City. People were hugging, gathering, and going back indoors. The vaccinated felt a new jolt of confidence. Meanwhile the Delta variant was on the rise and chipping away at some of that confidence. I took the best precautions I could. 

We are negotiating in real time our risks and how to best navigate uncertainty, imperfect information, and our innate human desire to connect with each other again. It’s the balancing act of addressing pain and trauma, maximizing pleasure and relief, and minimizing risks that harm reductionists know very well. Hopefully, we can learn from and support each other to build more compassion and help our loved ones overcome any crises they face together.