15 October 2026 · 1 min read · Harm reduction
Harm reduction isn't giving up
Illustrative editorial draft. Named authorship, publication history and qualified review have not been confirmed. Not a founder testimonial or medical advice.
Cutting down, switching, using safer. These aren't failures. For a lot of people they're the first step that actually sticks.
There's a myth that anything short of total abstinence is denial. Tell that to the person on a methadone programme who hasn't overdosed in five years.
Harm reduction means meeting people where they are: naloxone, testing, tapering with a doctor, never using alone, swapping a worse habit for a less harmful one.
None of it is a failure. Staying alive is the whole point. Everything else gets built on top of that.
Abstinence works brilliantly for some people. I'm not knocking it. I'm knocking the idea that it's the only door.