Prevention Matters

The Christian Science Monitor recently examined how some advocates and others who work with injection drug users worldwide are welcoming a shift in U.S. policy toward IDUs and harm reduction. Gerry Stimson, executive director of the International Harm Reduction Association, said that the U.S. "has been a big block on harm reduction at the international political level," but that is "beginning to change, and it's changed quite suddenly." According to the Monitor, some advocates are calling on the U.S. to support programs aimed at IDUs in developing countries.

Twenty-six of the nation's leading tobacco control researchers and policy experts - including Partnership for Prevention Interim President Corinne G. Husten - today called for regulatory control of all tobacco products. In a blueprint they drafted to apply harm reduction principles to addreess tobacco addication, they also called for policies that encourage current tobacco users to reduce their health risks by switching from the most to the least harmful nicotine-containing products.

Dorothy Hatsukami, who co-chaired the two-year effort, said the blueprint "lays out the key elements of a science-based regulatory program and policies to shift current tobacco users away from cigarettes. With these policies and programs, we believe that the death toll from cigarette smoking and other tobacco use can be reduced dramatically."