i was really struck by in your book how generally, as you said, unkind our response to drug users is. And this book is just even more it where i realize it so much of the way that i got sober, and you did too as well. So before we go too far down into all that, let's start and talk about what does harm reduction mean, broadly. What is harm reduction in the case of a diction? Sure,. The idea that what we should focus on is stopping people from getting hurt, not stopping them from getting high, and stopping people from hurting others, not stopped them from taking drugs.
Maia Szalavitz is an American reporter and New York Times best-selling author who has focused much of her work on the topic of addiction. She has won awards from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Drug Policy Alliance, the American Psychological Association and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology for her 30 years of groundbreaking writing on addiction, drug policy and neuroscience.
In this episode, Maia and Eric discuss her book, Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction.
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In This Interview, Maia Szalavitz and I Discuss The Case for Harm Reduction and…
- Her book: Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction
- What “harm reduction” means in the case of addition
- The truth behind why we have the drug policies that we currently have
- Differentiating between the terms dependence and addiction
- The real problem of addiction being the compulsive behavior that’s ruining your life
- The role of moderation in substance use in people in recovery
- How to know whether or not moderation or abstinence is right for you
- The problem with a binary approach to drug use
- The harm reduction recovery approach as any positive change
- The difficult but crucial role of being a beginner to learn what’s right for you
Maia Szalavitz Links:
Maia’s Website
Twitter
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If you enjoyed this conversation with Maia Szalavitz, you might also enjoy these other episodes:
Maia Szalavitz on a Different Lens of Addiction (2017)
Judson Brewer on Addiction and the Craving Mind
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