Responsible drug use
Nevertheless, harm reduction advocates claim that the user can be responsible by employing the same general principles applicable to the use of alcohol: avoiding hazardous situations, excessive doses, and hazardous combinations of drugs; avoiding injection; and not using drugs at the same time as activities that may be unsafe without a sober state.
Similar to other risky activities such as skydiving or mountain climbing, the varied risks of drug use can be minimized by using harm-reduction strategies such as education, caution, and common sense.
Harm reduction worked so effectively that researchers and community policy makers adapted the theory to other diseases to which drug users were susceptible, such as Hepatitis C. Professor Graham Foster, of St Mary's Hospital, London, said: "Sharing banknotes or straws is a significant risk factor that people need to be more aware of.
Also, a study by Bonkovsky and Mehta reported that, just like shared needles, the sharing of straws used to "snort" cocaine can spread blood diseases such as Hepatitis C. The responsible user therefore acts to minimize the spread of blood-borne viruses such as hepatitis C and HIV in the wider community and reduce their own risk exposure to drug-related harms.
Vancouver, British Columbia[6] opened a SiS called Insite in its poorest neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside.
The program is attracting the highest-risk users, which has led to less needle-sharing in the Downtown Eastside community, and in the 453 overdoses which occurred at the facility, health care staff have saved every person.
Users are given access to clean needles and other paraphernalia, monitored by health officials and are given the ability to seek help from drug addiction.
Profit motivation rewards illegal sellers who dilute substances with a cutting agent; when a user, expecting a low dose, procures "uncut" drugs, an overdose can result.
The morality of buying certain illegal drugs is also questioned given that the trade in cocaine, for instance, has been estimated to cause 20,000 deaths a year in Colombia alone.
[26][27][28] As a result, some have reported a significant reduction of the workload of festival's medics, welfare team and police officers.
