USA. A growing fentanyl harm reduction move

USA. A growing fentanyl harm reduction move

Over the last decade, there’s been a rapid, organic shift among drug users away from injection and towards smoking. The change is a clear example of how people’s behavior, no matter the context, can significantly affect their health outcomes. (Opting out of needles can practically eliminate a person’s risk for skin wounds or certain infections, for example.) 

The shift has also revealed how, too often, public opinion and government policy are out of step with the basic realities of drug use epidemiology. “My favorite thing about smoking as overdose prevention is that smoking is a social experience,” said Jim Duffy, the founder of Smoke Works, which distributes “injection alternatives” like pipes. “We lose people when they’re alone.” 

Read more from STAT’s Lev Facher on what changing behaviors mean for public health and addiction treatment. And to get an up-close look at how harm reduction works, watch the accompanying video. Lev and Alex Hogan visited Duffy at the Smoke Works headquarters, then hiked into the New Hampshire woods with a local worker distributing supplies to folks in a remote homeless encampment. (Stat News, USA, 12.02.2026)

https://www.statnews.com/2026/02/12/fentanyl-harm-reduction-smoking-not-injecting