Reducing drug related harms to health: an overview of the global evidence

This report, from a series produced by the Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme that explores the effectiveness of drug policies, reviews the current evidence for attempts to tackle drug-related harms. The report reviews the drug-related harms to health such as HIV, hepatitis, death by overdose, and local and systemic bacterial infections. The paper goes on to review the evidence of specific harm reduction techniques, such as: needle and syringe programmes (NSPs); methadone and other replacement therapies; prescribing heroin; information, education and communication (IEC), Outreach and motivational enhancement; interventions to reduce overdose and poisoning; and drug consumption rooms.

The authors find that the strongest and most consistent evidence has been shown in: the capacity of NSPs to prevent HIV; and the role of opioid substitution treatment in reducing heroin use and its risks. These programmes have been shown to be effective in making contact with ‘hidden’ population of drug users, stabilises behaviour and encourages them to give up their lifestyle. However, the authors are concerned that resistance to these measures, at community and policy level, is due to ideological unease, rather than objective appraisal of the evidence. The authors highlight the need for urgent attention to widespread injecting drug use and the need to agree effective responses to potential HIV epidemics that build on these harm reduction approaches.