Harm Reduction: Background information when reading The Forgotten Girls

In The Forgotten Girls, journalist Monica Potts revisits her declining Arkansas hometown and her childhood best friend Darci, who is locked in a struggle with drug addiction that traditional interventions—stigmatization, directing the victim to God for help—have failed to cure. While Darci's struggle involves a pattern of minor crimes, jail time, faith-based rehabs, relapses and unhealthy relationships that offer drugs and security, Potts notes that another high school friend of theirs manages to hold a job, take care of her family and generally function while taking meth daily. "I thought Darci needed a way to use and still be safe," Potts writes. "Advocates call this harm reduction: prioritizing keeping users alive rather than punishing them for their use."

According to the National Library of Medicine, "Harm reduction is a public health strategy that was developed initially for adults with substance abuse problems for whom abstinence was not feasible." The modern ...