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Schweiz. The Incredible Story of Zürich’s Journey to Harm Reduction

André Seidenberg, Zürich, in: Filter, USA, 09.09.2020

https://filtermag.org/zurich-switzerland-harm-reduction/

Perceptions about fentanyl-adulterated heroin and overdose risk reduction behaviors among persons seeking treatment for heroin use. 

Stein MD, Kenney SR, Anderson BJ, Bailey GL. 

J Subst Abuse Treat. 2019;104:144-147. doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2019.07.006

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6702957/

HaRePo (harm reduction by post): an innovative and effective harm reduction programme for people who use drugs using email, telephone, and post service. 

Torres-Leguizamon, M., Reynaud, E.G., Néfau, T. et al.

Harm Reduct J 17, 59 (2020). doi.org/10.1186/s12954-020-00403-1

https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12954-020-00403-1

USA. National Harm Reduction Coalition – neue Website

https://harmreduction.org

Kanada. Canadian Drug Users Need Us Doctors to Step Up With Safe Supply

(...) As overdose deaths skyrocket, associated with even higher concentrations of illicitly-produced fentanyl in the street drug supply, it’s time for physicians and nurse practitioners across Canada to step up and start prescribing a replacement “safe supply” of pharmaceutical-grade drugs. We can use the tools we already have, within models that meet our patients’ needs, while we advocate for decriminalization of drugs and access to a legal, regulated, non-toxic supply. (Claire Bodkin & Tommy Brothers, Filter, USA, 24.08.2020)

https://filtermag.org/canada-doctors-safe-supply/

Bulgarien. The Oldest Harm Reduction Organisation in Bulgaria Shut Down

In June 2020, all harm reduction services with public funding stopped in Bulgaria for the second time in three (2017-2020) years. The oldest, biggest, and most experienced harm reduction organisation, Initiative for Health Foundation, shut down too. No needle and syringe programs remained open in the country. (Drug Reporter, Ungarn, 25.08.2020)

https://drogriporter.hu/en/the-oldest-harm-reduction-organisation-in-bulgaria-shut-down

Social network support and harm reduction activities in a peer researcher-led pilot study, British Columbia, Canada. 

Elkhalifa, S., Jozaghi, E., Marsh, S. et al. 

Harm Reduct J 17, 57 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-020-00401-3

https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12954-020-00401-3

Global Fund. Technical brief: Harm reduction for people who use drugs

MARCH 2020 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND 

Global Fund. Technical brief: Harm reduction for people who use drugs

Normalised pain and severe health care delay among people who inject drugs in London: Adapting cultural safety principles to promote care

Magdalena Harris

Social Science & Medicine, Volume 260, September 2020, 113183, doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113183

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620304020

'A journey with harm reduction: compassion, public health, political wisdom and human rights' presentation at the City Health International 2020 Online Conference. (Video)

(City Health International, 15.06.2020, Video, 12:21)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW_S5mD2DNM

Harm reduction for people who inject drugs in Ukraine and Tanzania associated with improved HIV prevention outcomes

NGO-delivered initiatives have tangible benefits for the health of people who inject drugs in terms of HIV and hepatitis C prevention and engagement with HIV care in Ukraine, according to research presented to the 23rd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020: Virtual). Clients of NGOs were more likely to have been tested for HIV, use condoms and sterile needles, receive opioid agonist therapy, and if HIV positive, be on antiretroviral therapy. (aidsmap, UK,05.07.2020)

https://www.aidsmap.com/news/jul-2020/harm-reduction-people-who-inject-drugs-ukraine-and-tanzania-associated-improved-hiv

Harm reduction measures employed by people using opioids with suspected fentanyl exposure in Boston, Baltimore, and Providence. 

Rouhani S, Park JN, Morales KB, Green TC, Sherman SG. 

Harm Reduct J. 2019;16(1):39. Published 2019 Jun 24. doi:10.1186/s12954-019-0311-9

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6591810/

Does Drinking Within Low-Risk Guidelines Prevent Harm? Implications for High-Income Countries Using the International Model of Alcohol Harms and Policies

Adam Sherk, Gerald Thomas, Samuel Churchill, and Tim Stockwell

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 2020 81:3, 352-361

https://www.jsad.com/doi/10.15288/jsad.2020.81.352

Was Harm Reduction ist und warum wir mehr davon brauchen

Was ist Harm Reduction?

Wortwörtlich übersetzt bedeutet harm reduction „Schadensreduzierung.“ Obwohl die Entwicklung erster harm reduction-Maßnahmen schon in den 1920er-Jahren begann, ist das Prinzip erst in den 1980er-Jahren bekannt geworden. In dieser Zeit wurden erstmals Spritzenprogramme als Antwort auf die HIV-Ausbreitung unter Menschen, die Drogen injizieren, eingesetzt. Das oberste Ziel von harm reduction ist es, mögliche Schäden von Drogengebrauch mit sogenannten safer use-Praktiken zu reduzieren oder zu verhindern.1 (Melissa Scharwey in: mybrainmychoice.de, 12.06.2020)

http://mybrainmychoice.de/harm-reduction/

Making the investment case: Cost-effectiveness evidence for harm reduction 

In an era of shrinking international funding to address HIV, hepatitis C (HCV)
and tuberculosis (TB), and competing priorities for domestic investment in health programmes, there is growing emphasis on ensuring value for money, efficient allocation of resources, and cost-effectiveness. (HRI – Harm Reduction International, 2020)

http://fileserver.idpc.net/library/HRI_cost_effectiveness_briefing.pdf

Street tablet use in Ireland. A Trendspotter study on use, markets, and harms.

Duffin T, Keane M and Millar SR (2020) 

Ana Liffey Drug Project, Dublin. https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/31872/1/Trendspotter%20Report_Street_Tablets_Ireland.pdf

Reduction in global alcohol-attributable harm unlikely after setback at WHO Executive Board

Casswell, Sally et al.

The Lancet, Volume 395, Issue 10229, 1020 - 1021

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30476-1/fulltext

People who inject drugs can ‘give bacteria the boot’ with new SDF booklet 

SDF have published a new resource to highlight good hygiene practices for people who inject drugs in order to prevent the spread of bacteria and viruses. (SDF – Scottish Drugs Forum, UK, April 2020)

http://www.sdf.org.uk/people-who-inject-drugs-can-give-bacteria-the-boot-with-new-sdf-booklet/

Navigating environmental constraints to injection preparation: the use of saliva and other alternatives to sterile water among unstably housed PWID in London.

Harris, M., Scott, J., Hope, V. et al. 

Harm Reduct J 17, 24 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-020-00369-0

https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12954-020-00369-0

Gender-based vulnerability in women who inject drugs in a harm reduction setting.

Valencia J, Alvaro-Meca A, Troya J, Gutiérrez J, Ramón C, Rodríguez A, et al. (2020) 

PLoS ONE 15(3): e0230886. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230886

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0230886

Safer Use - die goldenen Regeln für den risikominimierten Cannabisgenuss

Die Münchener DHV-Ortsgruppe hat einen Leitfaden für risikominimierten Genussmittelkonsum entwickelt, den wir euch an dieser Stelle nicht vorenthalten möchten. Er fasst goldene Regeln für einen risikominimierten Cannabisgenuss sowie Safer User Hinweise zusammen. Anmerkung des DHV: Dieser Leitfaden ist nicht 1:1 auf den medizinischen Konsum übertragbar und soll auch keine Aufforderung zum Drogenkonsum darstellen! (Deutscher Hanfverband, März 2020)

https://hanfverband.de/cannabis-safer-use

How Former Soviet Countries Are Suppressing Harm Reduction “Propaganda”

Lawmakers in the former Soviet Union are seeking to impose harsher criminal penalties for drug-related “propaganda,” especially online. Their efforts are ostensibly supposed to keep people from promoting drug use. But local advocates fear that this approach will persecute those doing harm reduction work for people using drugs or living with HIV/AIDS. (Filter, USA, 05.03.2020)

https://filtermag.org/soviet-drug-propaganda/

Does a “Dialectical Abstinence” Program Qualify as Harm Reduction?

I first heard the term “dialectical abstinence” in the summer of 2019, several weeks into an intensive outpatient program (IoP) for opioid use disorder offered in South Florida by Memorial Outpatient Behavioral Health. The concept was presented as a combination of abstinence and harm reduction: maintaining total abstinence from all non-prescribed opioids as the ultimate goal, but viewing any failures to meet that goal through a harm reduction lens. (Filter, USA, 20.02.2020)

https://filtermag.org/dialectical-abstinence-harm-reduction/

Kanada. Vancouver’s drug-dispensing machine: Why it exists and how it works

Health advocates say a safe supply of opioids is critical to help prevent people from overdosing on tainted street drugs.

Now, a pilot project in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside provides some high-risk users with access to an automated machine that dispenses opioids prescribed by a doctor. (CBC News – BC, Kanada, 17.01.2020)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-drug-dispensing-machine-opioids-overdoses-1.5429704

Stimulant safe supply: a potential opportunity to respond to the overdose epidemic.

Fleming T, Barker A, Ivsins A, Vakharia S, McNeil R.

Harm Reduct J. 2020 Jan 10;17(1):6. doi: 10.1186/s12954-019-0351-1.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6954588/

"There is a Place": impacts of managed alcohol programs for people experiencing severe alcohol dependence and homelessness.

Pauly B, Brown M, Evans J, Gray E, Schiff R, Ivsins A, Krysowaty B, Vallance K, Stockwell T.

Harm Reduct J. 2019 Dec 16;16(1):70. doi: 10.1186/s12954-019-0332-4.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6916004/

Civil Society Monitoring of Harm Reduction in Europe, 2019. Data Report.

Tammi, T., Rigoni, R., Matičič, M., Schäffer, D.,van der Gouwe, D., Schiffer, K., Perez Gayo, R., Schatz, E. (2020):

Correlation European Harm Reduction Network, Amsterdam.

https://www.correlation-net.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/C-EHRN_monitoring.pdf

USA. “An Abstinence-Based State”—Utah Harm Reduction Faces Unique Challenges

Deaths involving opioids, methamphetamine and other drugs have reached record highs in Utah. The state government passed legislation in 2016 to create syringe exchanges, but harm reduction advocates still battle against stigma from conservatives and liberals alike to implement programs in a unique cultural context. (Filter, USA, 09.01.2020)

https://filtermag.org/harm-reduction-utah/

Europa. Final conference of the SOLIDIFY project in Lisbon: exchange on the role of local authorities and visit of harm-reduction schemes

The Efus-led SOLIDIFY European project on the implementation of Supervised Drug Consumption Facilities (SDCFs) in several European cities and the assessment of their local impact held its final conference in Lisbon, on 5-6 December. (EFUS – European Forum for Urban Security, Dezember 2019)

https://efus.eu/en/topics/activity/18223/

Global State of Harm Reduction 2019

The 2019 update to Harm Reduction International’s flagship publication, the Global State of Harm Reduction, includes updates to some of the key data in the report, including the opening of new drug consumption rooms, availability of needle and syringe programs, and references to harm reduction in national policy documents, among many other things. (HRI – Harm Reduction International, November 2019)

https://www.hri.global/global-state-of-harm-reduction-2019

  1. Snus: a compelling harm reduction alternative to cigarettes.
  2. “We don't get much of a voice about anything”: perspectives on photovoice among people who inject drugs. Drainoni, M., Childs, E., Biello, K.B. et al. 
  3. The Evolution of Addiction Treatment and Harm Reduction Programs in Iran: A Chaotic Response or a Synergistic Diversity?.
  4. Harm reduction drug policy in Israel: what has been accomplished and what still needs to be done?
  5. Alex Wodak - History and development of harm reduction (Video)