There’s a lot of misinformation out there about the flawed notion of harm reduction. Misinformation like: it’s a viable, effective option; that addiction is inevitable – that people will always use drugs – so reducing harm is the most effective way to address the problem; that it should be instituted in the U.S. like it is in some European countries; that it improves the lives of addicts and the general public alike by removing the stigma of drug addiction. Consider these facts and statistics and give harm reduction a little more thought.

• One conservative estimate of the cost of drug abuse to society is 41 billion dollars a year – but the cost in human suffering is beyond measure. Imagine what it would be if drug use were legal and accepted.

So legal drug use and harm reduction would minimize the harms to users and those around them? Consider those you’re around every day in the workplace…

• Businesses spend between $7,000 and $11,000 more to employ a drug- using employee than a drug free employee.
• Employees who use drugs utilize 300 percent more medical benefits than nonusers and are absent 1.5 times more often.
• 80 percent of the people hurt in on the job accidents involving marijuana are the co-workers of the users—not the users themselves.

Think drugs and the drug culture can be made “safer” for kids? Consider harm reduction measures such as Dance Safe and pill testing at raves…

• Ecstasy often results in severe dehydration and heat stroke in the user, since it “short-circuits” the body’s temperature signals to the brain.
• Ecstasy can heat your body up to temperatures as high as 117 degrees.
• Today’s drug dealers are savvy businessmen. They market to kids by imprinting Ecstasy pills with cartoon characters and designer logos and promote parties as safe and alcohol-free, while club drugs can flow easier than water.
• Because of new marketing tactics of drug promoters, there is a growing perception among young people today that drugs are harmless. A decade ago, for example, 79 percent of 12th graders thought regular marijuana use was harmful; only 58 percent do so today.

Think legalization and harm reduction protects the general public, as well as users and those who engage in the drug business (dealers, cultivators, growers, etc.)? Consider California, where so-called medical marijuana is legal…

• U.S. Forest Service law enforcement agents estimate the street value of marijuana planted on national forest land in California alone exceeds $1 billion a year.
• Since 1997, the U.S. Forest Service has eradicated seven million pounds of marijuana grown on California national forest land.
• Law enforcement officers and agents say hikers, hunters and other backcountry users have been chased away at gunpoint after stumbling into marijuana gardens—on U.S. National Forest land!

So you think harm reduction should be instituted in the U.S., as it is in some foreign countries where harm reduction is now the norm…

• Registered marijuana dealers in the Netherlands are allowed to deduct from their taxes the business expenses of drug dealing—things like guard dogs and assault rifles.
• The Swiss government supplies consumption rooms to provide a "clean and safe" environment for addicts to inject heroin under medical supervision.
• Maintenance treatment, like other harm reduction measures, is designed to regulate addicts’ drug use. Methadone maintenance is the most common, but several countries, including Germany, are experimenting with distributing heroin itself.
• In the Netherlands, where harm reduction policies are practiced, there is a union/lobbyist group for addicts called the Federation of Dutch Junkie Leagues.
• When they found out that crack smoking had increased 22 percent, a harm reduction group in Vancouver decided to attack the problem by giving out free rubber tubing so smokers wouldn’t burn their lips on their crack pipes.
• After the Netherlands legalized marijuana use for adults, the usage rate for 18 to 20 year olds nearly tripled from 15 to 44 percent.