Overcoming the Drug-War Meme: A Comparative Analysis of Existing Illicit-Drug Policies and the Grassroots Advocacy Efforts to Encourage “Harm Reduction” in the Pacific Northwest

Authors

Nathan Michael Haslip, SIT Graduate InstituteFollow

Degree Name

MA in Sustainable Development

First Advisor

Nikoi Kote-Nikoi

Abstract

For more than a century illicit-drug policies have emphasized the criminalization of drug use. In the face of evidence suggesting that such policies are failing to curb the “drug epidemic” many advocates are calling for a radical shift in the way societies deal with the problem of illicit drug use/addiction. Harm reduction policies have emerged as a viable alternative to the existing policies that many consider to be socially unjust. The following is an analysis of advocacy efforts in Bellingham, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia to promote harm reduction programs—the Whatcom County Needle Exchange Program and Insite, North America’s first Supervised Injection Site, respectively.

Disciplines

Criminology | Sociology

Recommended Citation

Haslip, Nathan Michael, "Overcoming the Drug-War Meme: A Comparative Analysis of Existing Illicit-Drug Policies and the Grassroots Advocacy Efforts to Encourage “Harm Reduction” in the Pacific Northwest" (2010). Capstone Collection. 1376.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/capstones/1376