On Smoking

National Harm Reduction Coalition to Work on Smoking Cessation

There is a common misperception that harm reduction and abstinence are in conflict with one another, but the reality is that abstinence is a harm reduction strategy if the needs of the people using are centered, their agency to use is preserved, and there are supports provided in the form of medicated assisted treatment / alternative therapies.

From the Article:

“NHRC believes in a harm reduction-informed approach to smoking cessation,” he told Filter. “NHRC plans to work with Global Action to End Smoking to develop and implement an education and dissemination campaign, with the aim of reducing the numbers of people who smoke cigarettes.”

This work will be guided by “centering people with lived and living experience and actively listening to them,” he said. “Reparative justice is important to communities that have been harmed by the promotion and sale of combustible tobacco, and this work is within NHRC and Global Action’s mission.”

Salandy has lived experience of his own with tobacco use. “I first started smoking cigarettes in the Army,” he related. “Back in the early ‘80s, during Basic Training, soldiers would be provided complimentary small packages of cigarettes from tobacco companies’ promotional representatives. Cigarette breaks were a common occurrence back then.”

“I stopped smoking using a harm reduction approach,” he continued. “Primarily, nicotine replacement therapy. Nicotine patches and [the medication] bupropion, later on, served as aids to quitting.“