The Year in Harm Reduction Law: 2024 Wrap-up
December 11, 2024
Overview
Despite increasing acceptance of harm reduction as an important and necessary component of the country’s efforts to reduce the overwhelming number of opioid overdose deaths, harm reduction law and policy has seen both ups and downs in the past year. However, there is a movement to support people who use drugs, to improve the public’s health, to save lives, and to impart basic human dignity to all.
Despite increasing acceptance of harm reduction as an important and necessary component of the country’s efforts to reduce the overwhelming number of opioid overdose deaths, harm reduction law and policy has seen both ups and downs in the past year. Increased funding from the federal government, opioid settlement funds, and other sources have helped get naloxone into the hands of people who are most likely to be in a position to use it to reverse an overdose; and overdose deaths appear to be decreasing, albeit not in every jurisdiction. In June, Vermont became the third state to authorize or fund overdose prevention centers (OPC) (after Minnesota and Rhode Island, which just celebrated the opening the nation’s first state-sanctioned OPC). New York City’s OPC, OnPoint, has successfully reversed over 1,600 overdoses as of December 2024.
However, things are not as rosy elsewhere. Syringe services programs (SSPs) are a basic harm reduction staple that have been proven successful at reducing disease transmission and other drug-related harm time and time again over the last 30 years. However, some SSPs continue to face bans, restrictions, and defunding. Some locations have successfully fought back against these attempts, such as in Pueblo, Colorado, where the ACLU of Colorado stepped in to sue the city and prevent it from banning this lifesaving program. The state of California, after 10 years of bans, lawsuits, and smear campaigns against state-authorized SSPs, also took action this year and sued El Dorado County after the county enacted a local ban that shut down a state-authorized program.
It remains to be seen, however, whether these wins will turn the tide of general anti-harm reduction attitudes. The Biden administration banned the use of federal funds to purchase pipes for inhaling drugs in 2022 and we continue to see the distribution of glassware as a major sticking point for some communities (despite its many benefits). The most dramatic example of this happened this year in Idaho, where several harm reduction programs in the state were raided by police and glassware confiscated, leading to the repeal of the state’s SSP authorization law – the first such repeal the country has seen.
The future of harm reduction is unclear. What is clear from recent court rulings (such as in Grant’s Pass v. Johnson) and some state policy changes (such as the passage of Prop 36 in California) is that many of the individuals harm reductionists serve — unhoused, under-resourced, LGBTQ+, incarcerated or formerly incarcerated, immigrant, and communities of color — continue to face policy headwinds.
However, there is a movement to support people who use drugs, to improve the public’s health, to save lives, and to impart basic human dignity to all. The Network’s Harm Reduction team is here to assist in better understating, utilizing, and improving harm reduction laws and policies. You can contact us through the form on the website or directly at harmreduction@networkfprphl.org.