R Street’s Harm Reduction program aims for integrated harm reduction with tobacco, opioid and sexual behavior as central elements. We believe that “abstinence only” approaches to risky behaviors will not work on a population-wide basis. As such, we emphasize harm-reduction approaches that accept that harmful behavior may continue even as we seek to mitigate – if not eliminate – the harms involved. Read our theory of change about the future of integrated harm reduction.
Harm Reduction
The Issue
Publications
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer, Majority Leader Hoyer, Minority Leader McConnell, Minority Leader McCarthy, and Honorable Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives:
The…
Building Back Cancer Rates
Steven Greenhut
There are so many reasons to oppose the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion Build Back Better legislation, not the least of which centers on the bill’s asinine name. Forget about the moniker’s iffy…
OSHA mandate demonstrates it is time to rein in executive orders
Marc Hyden
The conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dealt President Joe Biden an embarrassing setback. In September, Biden issued an executive order directing the Occupational Safety and Health…
WHO Needs Reduction To Escape Unsuccessful “Quit or Die” Tobacco Strategy
Pritika C. Kumar & Stacey McKenna
Tobacco kills roughly eight million people around the world every year, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) has long aimed for complete eradication of…
The Folly of the ‘Build Back Better’ Plan’s Nicotine Tax
Mazen Saleh & Pritika C. Kumar
In a move expected to generate an estimated $96 billion in funding for the president’s Build Back Better Act (BBB) agenda, lawmakers are considering a tax on nicotine that would increase the…
Dear President Biden:
In January, the White House issued a “Memorandum on Restoring Trust in Government Through Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking,” in which you state “[i]t…
How Harm Reduction Can Help Win the Fight Against Opioids
Stacey McKenna
Last year, nearly 70,000 people in the United States died of opioid-related overdoses, up from 49,860 in 2019—a rise driven by synthetic opioids.
Despite three years of…
Everyone engages in behaviors that can harm their health, and many of us take measures to decrease these health risks. If you wear your seatbelt while…
Article: Bayla Ostrach et al., Ensuring Buprenorphine Access in Rural Community Pharmacies to Prevent Overdoses, Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, (2021).
Reviewed by: Stacey…
WHAT IS HARM REDUCTION?
Harm reduction is a set of policies and programs that allow individuals to mitigate the risks associated with particular behaviors, whether those involve drugs, alcohol,…