Persuasive Essay On Harm Reduction

1051 Words5 Pages
The practice of harm reduction is not a new idea to promote personal or general safety. It has been a major part of society in several different ways for decades. For example, Federal law mandates the use of seatbelts to protect individuals from serious motor vehicle injuries, the Food and Drug Administration recommends the use of condoms and other barrier methods to decrease the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection, and some states require the use of helmets while operating or being the passenger of a motorcycle. The main goal of harm reduction is to save lives, a simple concept to grasp when the task at hand is legal. Complications arise when harm reduction methods assist in tasks that are illegal such as prescribed methadone and buprenorphine to reduce the use and overdosing of illegal drug users or providing clean needles to intravenous drug users to reduce the…show more content…
Illicit drug users need more help than simply abstaining from the use of drugs to overcome their addiction. The use of federal money to pay for sterile syringes is still prohibited, but funds can now be used to pay for other aspects of NEPs, including personnel, vehicles, gas, rent, and other expenditures needed to keep NEPs operational (Weinmeyer, 2016). The war against drugs is the main reason why the use of NEPs and MAT programs are incredibly perplexing. The ideology of assisting an individual in maintaining the euphoric feeling of illicit drugs or providing hypodermic needles to successfully administer drugs contradicts the campaign of “just say no”. The use of drugs is illegal, yet the government provides assistance with drug use. NEPs and methadone clinics can be found in cities throughout the nation and have raised concerns of many citizens. Weinmeyer (2016) states opponents of medical assistive programs
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