"Comprehensive substance use services should include not only behavioral interventions to reduce substance use but also harm reduction services aimed at mitigating the adverse effects of substance use [23, 24]. For example, medication therapies, such as administering opioid agonists like methadone and buprenorphine, alleviate withdrawal symptoms and enhance treatment compliance. Syringe service programs provide access to clean syringes and safe disposal of used ones, thereby reducing the risk of blood-borne infectious diseases such as HIV and HCV. These harm reduction approaches are an integral and essential part of the tool kit and yet, they remain significantly underutilized. [25,26,27]
"Besides the highly visible stigma associated with harm reduction practices [28,29,30], other hurdles—whether real or perceived—may hinder their adoption. For instance, lawmakers and politicians may fear that promoting seemingly unpopular harm reduction policies could weaken trust in government and even alienate voters. Such a negative association is easy to envision, as it aligns with intuition and past research on the federal government. For example, when government’s and citizens’ views on critical policy issues diverge, institutional trust can decline [31]."
Liu, X., Chan, Mp.S., The Grid for Reduction of Vulnerability. et al. Comprehensive drug policies increase trust in local government: an analysis of authorities’ and residents’ perspectives in rural US Appalachian and Midwestern counties. Harm Reduct J 22, 34 (2025). doi.org/10.1186/s12954-024-01148-x
