Public health officials in Vancouver were miles ahead of most of America in so-called harm reduction, a social justice movement aimed at reducing the negative consequences of drug use—without necessarily ending the use—and, more broadly, treating users with dignity and respect. The basic theory being: Users can’t get sober if they’re dead, and it’s cheaper and more humane to give them clean syringes, say, than it is to pay for HIV and/or hepatitis C treatment. Vancouver officials launched supervised injection sites where nurses stood by to revive overdosed users, fostered the free exchange of
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