Friend,
I am thrilled to share some exciting news with you. Today marks the official release of a highly anticipated book that we have all been eagerly awaiting. Sheila Vakharia’s The Harm Reduction Gap: Helping Individuals Left Behind by Conventional Drug Prevention and Abstinence-Only Addiction Treatment is finally here!
Order your copy now.
Sheila is an integral part of DPA's Department of Research and Academic Engagement. The analysis and strategies she shares in this book are invaluable to anyone who cares about people who use drugs and drug policy reform. Filled with compassion and concrete solutions, The Harm Reduction Gap has already garnered praise from leaders throughout our movement.
In this highly engaging and easy-to-read book, Sheila shares how her experiences shaped her perspective. As a teen, she received D.A.R.E. drug prevention education from a police officer. Later, she worked as a social worker at an abstinence-based treatment facility and served as a drug court representative. She saw the limitations of the “just say no” and abstinence-only messages from these programs and how unrealistic they are for most people. But then, a job at a syringe service program exposed her to a harm reduction approach to substance use that felt more intuitive and practical. Now, she shows how harm reduction can be a safety net for people who are rejected, abandoned, and left behind by current models of addiction treatment.
This book is a must-read for those new to harm reduction and drug policy reform. But it also has much to offer long-time members of the movement to end the war on drugs. Sheila makes a persuasive case that most people who use drugs — whether socially, recreationally, or problematically — could benefit from harm reduction tools and strategies to stay safe. Since harm reduction is often illegal, inaccessible, and difficult to find, many of us fall into the harm reduction gap.
Order your copy today. When you do, you join us in supporting Sheila’s work to close the harm reduction gap in our communities.
Please spread the word and help us get this important book into more hands! Thank you for being part of our community.
