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Drug related harm, risks and protective environments

In this video, Dr. Magdalena Harris from LSHTM speaks about potential harms and risk associated with drug use and protective environments

The first part of this week looked into what harm reduction is and what is stands for. Now, let’s have a deeper look at what we mean by ‘harm’. In this step, Dr. Magdalena Harris will expand on what causes harm, beyond the traditional perspective of ‘dangerous and harmful drugs’.

The optional reading from step 1.9 “The key principles of a harm reduction approach”, already briefly touched upon the concept of looking at the risks of drug use through a lens of ‘drugs, set and setting’. The notion of the danger of drugs is further explored through the famous experiment known as ‘rat park’.

Optional

You can find a longer explanation of the ‘rat park’ experiment in a TED talk from the journalist Johann Hari in the link below.

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Drug Use and Harm Reduction

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