Reduce preventable harm. Make health support easier to reach.
Harm reduction is a public-health approach grounded in evidence, dignity and human rights. It does not require a person to stop using drugs before receiving support.
What it means
Harm Reduction International describes harm reduction as policies, programmes and practices that minimize negative health, social and legal impacts associated with drug use, drug policies and drug laws.
Core principles
Evidence, respect for human rights, social justice, meaningful participation of people who use drugs, and avoidance of stigma are central principles. Treatment and abstinence can be important goals for some people, but support can also begin with smaller, practical steps that reduce immediate risks.
Evidence-based services internationally
WHO's comprehensive package for people who inject drugs includes enabling interventions to reduce stigma and discrimination, alongside health interventions such as needle and syringe programmes, opioid agonist treatment, overdose management and HIV/viral-hepatitis/STI prevention and care. A 2026 WHO operational guide further emphasizes community leadership, equity, integration and local adaptation.
Taiwan Happiness Association position
Taiwan Happiness Association has long supported evidence-based addiction care, recovery, public health and harm reduction. Drug policy and harm-reduction programmes should remain open to scientific evaluation and public scrutiny, but debate should not replace professional evidence with stigma or treat people who use drugs as equivalent to those who manufacture, transport or sell illicit drugs.
We fully support the recent statement issued by Taiwan Harm Reduction Association and our support for drug harm reduction remains unchanged. Harm reduction does not encourage drug use. Its purpose is to reduce preventable infection, overdose death and other health and social harms when a person is not yet able or ready to stop using drugs completely, while maintaining connection to healthcare, psychosocial support and pathways to treatment and recovery.
- Public-health policy may be criticised, but discussion should be grounded in scientific evidence.
- Harm-reduction policy may be reviewed, but stigma should not replace professional dialogue.
- Addiction can be chronic and relapsing; continuing care, follow-up and treatment adjustment matter.
- Recovery has different starting points and pathways and should not be judged by a single standard.
- Preventing one injury, one infection or one death, or enabling one act of help-seeking, can be the beginning of recovery.
We will continue to support evidence-based harm reduction, dignity, reduced stigma and improved access to help, including scientifically supported public-health measures such as needle and syringe programmes and opioid agonist treatment.
Taiwan Harm Reduction Association — recent statement on harm reduction ↗