We Need Harm Reduction Built for and by Youth Who Use Drugs

IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL LIVE –

Feb. 10, 2023 – It remains so hard for many people to get their heads around the importance of harm reduction programs and spaces dedicated to young people. Older adults remain inclined to “protect” and “save” youth in ways that often do more harm than good—particularly for those experiencing structural oppression. For older populations, society is slowly moving away from abstinence-only models toward harm reduction approaches that are empowering and far better evidenced. It is illogical and harmful to exclude young people from this shift in practice, policy and thinking.

Vancouver and Lisbon, where two of us live, are celebrated sites of established, progressive drug policies and harm reduction programs. But even in these places, young people who use drugs (YPWUD) have been left out and left behind.

In the Canadian province of British Columbia, where Vancouver is located, almost 2,000 people under 30 have died of drug poisoning since 2016. We remember and miss so many who are gone.