Investigating Barriers Toward Implementation of Harm Reduction

Harm reduction is a public health initiative that focuses on reducing the harms associated with substance use. These initiatives are currently being implemented all throughout Europe and across Canada in order to combat the addiction and overdose crisis. Despite strong empirical evidence of the efficacy of harm reduction in preventing death and overdose, these initiatives face many barriers to implementation in the United States and are not widely accepted or practiced. The aim of this study is to investigate overall feelings, perceptions, and attitudes towards harm reduction with the goal of identifying factors that predict such outcomes. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing overall attitudes towards harm reduction and individuals who use drugs. Participants were recruited via email, text message, social media, and on a university campus. Results showed that a lack of understanding regarding harm reduction and the value of these programs was associated with negative attitudes towards harm reduction as well as opposition towards implementation. Additionally, negative attitudes towards people who use drugs was associated with negative attitudes towards harm reduction. Finally, openness to experience was correlated with greater support and more positive attitudes towards harm reduction. In particular, the emotionality and liberalism sub-facets of openness to experience were the strongest predictors of those attitudes. These findings suggest that interventions to educate and change attitudes may increase the level of support for implementing harm reduction.