Explain what harm reduction means in the context of alcohol and drugs and give one example.

• A. A medical treatment that guarantees abstinence
• B. A punitive approach to discourage use through criminal sanctions
• C. Harm reduction: strategies to minimize negative health, social, and legal consequences; example: providing naloxone for opioid overdose or needle exchange
• D. A strategy to stop all drug use immediately for everyone

Answer: (C)

Harm reduction focuses on reducing the negative health, social, and legal consequences of substance use by practical, evidence-based strategies. It recognizes that people will continue to use substances and aims to lower associated risks rather than mandating abstinence.

A concrete example is making naloxone widely available and training people to use it to reverse opioid overdoses. This directly reduces overdose deaths and improves safety in the community.

This approach contrasts with efforts that require everyone to stop using or rely on punishment to deter use, which are not the core idea of harm reduction.