Pioneers of Harm Reduction and Needle Exchange Programs

Maia Szalavitz is among the most brilliant thinkers and writers about psychoactive drug use, addiction, treatment, altered states of consciousness and neuroscience. Her book, Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction, was widely acclaimed for its analysis of addiction as not a crime but a learning disorder. Her latest book, Undoing Drugs, gave us an opportunity to talk about the pioneers in the United States, England and elsewhere who challenged conventional thinking about drug users and addiction, started life-saving programs to prevent HIV transmission and overdose fatalities, and initiated a harm reduction movement that has shaped US and global drug policy.

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