Crack Pipes, Cow Wormer, and Controversy: Stimulants and Harm Reduction
Year
2011 - Los Angeles, CA
Speakers
Thomas Kerr, Director, Urban Health Research Initiative, British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS & Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Carl Hart, Associate Professor, Psychology & Psychiatry Department, Columbia University, New York, NY
Zoe Dodd, Safer Crack Use Coalition (SCUC), Toronto, Canada
Don Habibi, Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Michael Discepola, Director, Stonewall Project, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, San Francisco, CA
Facilitator: Bill Piper, Director, National Affairs, Drug Policy Alliance, Washington, DC
Nathan Messer, Board President, DanceSafe, Seattle, WA
Eliza Wheeler, DOPE Project Manager, Harm Reduction Coalition, Oakland, CA
Despite the perception that harm reduction "doesn’t work" with stimulants – crack, methamphetamine, cocaine, etc. – there are in fact effective harm reduction programs around the world working to reduce the harms of stimulant use. From testing cocaine for adulterants to providing a safe space for crack smoking, people are implementing a variety of cutting-edge harm reduction programs. What programs have been successful, and what can we learn from them in developing new ones?