Opioid Substitution Treatment and Harm Minimization Approaches

Harm minimization (HM) policies and interventions aim to reduce substance abuse-related problem behaviors (Ritter and Cameron 2006). Addressing harms of substance use with evidence-based methods is increasingly accepted as pragmatically necessary and philosophically preferable to the moral hazards of condoning substance use as ‘social evil’ (Hammett et al. 2008; UNODC 2016).