Harm Reduction: Revolutions
Altough harm reduction was not mentioned in the Political Declaration adopted by the high level UN meeting on drugs (March 11-12, 2009), 26 countries supported the statement made by Germany saying that the lack of harm reduction language is disappointing and the undersigned governments will interpret the term related support services (a euphemism substituting harm reduction in the text) as harm reduction services. Other governments, like the US, Japan and Russia opposed this interpretation. Little more than a storm in a teacup this is how the head of UNODC described the heated debates on the term harm reduction in his closing speech. Not everybody shares his opinion. For example, the Transnational Institute (TNI) concluded in a blog that this year the Vienna consensus on drug control has cracked. I tend to agree with TNI: despite the noisy celebarations of the century of drug control, there are signs that the global prohibition era is coming to an end. Maybe change will not come suddenly but step by step: each new harm reduction program is a small revolution against the old uniform ways of drug control.
