Drug Matrix Cell A1: Interventions - Ways to Reduce the Harm

Initiates a fortnightly course on the evidence base for harm reduction and treatment in relation to illegal drugs. Comprehensively updated, the cell explores key research on interventions to reduce the harms to the user as a result of their drug use.

Learn why precisely because it shunned methadone maintenance, Sweden has been able to most convincingly demonstrate its lifesaving value. Now a settled feature of the UK harm-reduction landscape, in the 1980s the future of needle exchange was in the balance. The commentary on the cell reveals how that balance was tipped when the apparent failure of pilot schemes was hidden, and asks whether that was a good thing which saved many lives, or whether science should have prevailed. Naloxone provision is the new hope for harm reduction, and evaluations of the Scottish national programme are a litmus test of its effectiveness in the UK. Examine with us the (not entirely convincing) evidence.