Liverpool and the Harm Reduction movement

Liverpool has been associated with drug-use since the 1980's, when it was estimated that around 20,000 users lived in the area at that time. As drug-use, in particular, heroin use became more common and visible, public health professionals have been looking for solutions to protect not only the users, but those in the surrounding communities and of society in general. Deterred from taking the same socially destructive zero-tolerance approach as was used in the United States, those who worked in the field sought to build on the notion developed as early as the 1920's, that drug-use was primarily a public health issue rather than a moral one and as such sought to develop methods of managing and maintaining the safety of drug users.

 

The pioneering and pragmatic ideas of substituting street drugs with prescription drugs and providing sterilised needles and syringes to prevent infections were the key methods in tackling the growing rates of HIV through the sharing of injecting equipment, vein infections and lethal overdoses caused by the impurity of street drugs. Against this backdrop, the philosophy behind the harm reduction movement began to spread throughout the world. The International Harm Reduction Confrence is an annual gathering of activists and professionals seeking to create a safer environment for drug-users and for society in general.

 

This video hears from the pioneers of the harm reductionist ideas about the grassroots origins of the movement.