NROSCI 0081 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Harm Reduction, Agonist
Document Summary
Common elements of drug laws: drug laws vary from country to country. Soft: not as bad (mary jane: goal: prevent people from using drugs. Introduce drug user to medical help/support community, as well as emergency medical and social services. Done through submitting portion of drug for testing. Maintenance therapy: agonist replacement therapy, combined with medical and social services. Decriminalization: reducing the penalties for possessing drugs, decriminalization helps harm reduction strategies. Example: protecting people through passing out clean needles: example: portugal decriminalized the use of all drugs in 2001. Treats possession and use of small quantities of these drugs as a public health issue instead of a criminal one. The drugs were still illegal: results: Map showed fewer people actually dying from overdoses. No, graph shown demonstrated increase of drug war spending to trillions whereas drug abuse has remain practically steady.
