Harm Reduction International Conference

This week we will be posting a number of quotes from the Harm Reduction International conference in Montréal. This may involve a higher than usual number of quotes.

The conference hashtag to follow is #HR17, don’t forget to also follow HRI on Twitter, FB and Instagram. Regular news updates from the conference are being published by NAM.

Note: Quotes appearing here will be a mix of conference speeches, conversational quotes and quotes from reports featured at the conference. They do not nececerally reflect the opinions of the conference organisers Harm Reduction International.


Decriminalisation is a fundamental policy reform in order to address the harms caused by treating people who use drugs as criminals, and to end the inequality of the law and to stop the aggressive surveillance of individuals and their communities. And when we talk about health care for people who use drugs how is that fully realised when we treat people as criminals first and foremost.
Niamh Eastwood speaking at HR17

“HR17”

Something is wrong in the system, I see most of my friends going in and out of rehab and prison.
Yatie Jonet speaking at HR17

“HR17”

Not only am I a better doctor, but a better person for my involvement in the harm reduction community, because the other people here keep me honest.
Marianne Jauncey speaking at HR17

“HR17”

Criminalisation of people who use drugs has lead to prison overcrowding... ...a criminal record is not something innocent, it has a myriad of other consequences.
Michel Kazatchkine speaking at HR17

“HR17”

Whenever a policy is put in place an evaluation of that policy should also be put in place, and this is something lacking (in the criminalisation of drugs and people who use drugs)
Michel Kazatchkine speaking at HR17

“HR17”

The effectiveness of drug treatment interventions can never be fully realised when we are treating people as criminals
Niamh Eastwood speaking at HR17

“HR17”

People who use drugs should be front and centre in the response
Judy Chang speaking at HR17

“HR17”

This research found that in 2014, the total estimated national spending on harm reduction in Hungary amounted to just €1.26 million. By contrast, researchers estimated expenditure on punitive drug law enforcement in the same year to be approximately €2 billion, almost 2,000 times the amount spent on harm reduction. If a tiny proportion of this expenditure was redirected to harm reduction this would transform harm reduction programmes in the country and save countless lives.

“HR17”

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Nigel Brunsdon

Nigel Brunsdon

Nigel's day job is being the Community Manager at HIT, he also runs the injectingadvice.com website and a number of other online harm reduction projects. In his spare time he can be found hiding behind a camera.

Craig Harvey

Craig Harvey

Craig is a committed harm reductionist, having worked primarily with people who inject drugs for two decades, both in the United Kingdom and Australia. A surfer, climber and wannabe novelist, he sometimes takes photographs too.

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