According to a new study from Yale University, the Biden administration’s embrace of “harm reduction” strategies for drug users, which involves providing equipment and guidance for safer drug use, is ineffective and perhaps even detrimental to the recovery process.
The study examined how minorities suffering from cocaine addiction managed to recover without formal treatment. They found that factors such as social pressure, family responsibility, and spirituality, rather than endorsing safer drug use, played pivotal roles in recovery.
This study’s findings contrast starkly with liberal strategies to combat drug addiction, which often straddle the fine line between “harm reduction” and the potential encouragement of harmful behavior. The Washington Free Beacon reported on a Biden administration grant program that supports the provision of “smoking kits” for safer consumption of illicit substances such as crack cocaine and crystal methamphetamine.
One such organization in Maine offers addicts tools for drug consumption, such as crack and meth pipes, snorting kits, and instructions on safer crack cocaine smoking. When queried on the distribution of crack pipes, a representative responded affirmatively and jovially.
The facility’s approach hinges on the belief that not all addicts are ready for complete abstinence, and that they should instead be aided in consuming drugs with less risk of overdose or disease transmission.
This approach is challenged by Dr. Keith Humphreys, a Stanford professor and adviser to both Democrats and Republicans on drug policy. He argues that stigma or social disapproval is not inherently evil, as seen in the decline of behaviors such as cigarette smoking, drunk driving, and male-on-female domestic violence. Humphreys asserts that these declines are linked to increased societal disapproval, serving as a collective deterrent to destructive behavior.
Additionally, the Biden administration has considered implementing “safe injection sites” across the nation, where addicts can inject their drugs with sterile needles under the watchful eyes of trained staff. However, these sites can become magnets for drug users.
The previous stance of the federal government was against such sites, with the Trump administration even suing to prevent one from opening in Philadelphia. The Biden administration, however, is currently “evaluating” these facilities.
Despite federal hesitancy, several U.S. cities and the state of Rhode Island have authorized the establishment of these sites. Oregon has even decriminalized all drugs for personal use, a move that, since its inception in 2020, has seen the state’s overdose rates almost double. This increase contrasts sharply with the national average, which rose at a much slower pace.
Humphreys does recognize the benefits of certain harm reduction initiatives, such as distributing naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug, and syringe exchanges. He asserts that harm reduction programs operating with the goal of eventual recovery can yield different outcomes compared to those that appear to support the right to use drugs with taxpayer funds.
