First, Do Less Harm
Harm Reduction as a Principle of Law and Policy
- Publisher
- Les Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa Press
- Initial publish date
- Feb 2025
- Category
- Drugs & the Law, Disease & Health Issues, Public Health, Criminology, Social Services & Welfare
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780776641935
- Publish Date
- Feb 2025
- List Price
- $41.95
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780776641942
- Publish Date
- Feb 2025
- List Price
- $71.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9780776641966
- Publish Date
- Feb 2025
- List Price
- $95.97
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Where to buy it
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 15 to 18
- Grade: 10 to 12
Description
Readers will be able to gain a deeper understanding of how different approaches to harm reduction can create a stronger foundation for more effective policies and legislation. Scholars from law and social sciences collaborate with frontline organizations as well as with individuals with lived experience to reflect diverse perspectives, and transform how society addresses substance-related challenges.
Each chapter provides unique findings, drawing from examples of harm reduction strategies implemented for opioids, cannabis, and tobacco in Canada and beyond. While harm reduction has been a central aspect of the legal and policy responses to all three substances, its application has varied significantly.
First, Do Less Harm explores how the ongoing opioid crisis emphasizes the pressing need for safe consumption sites and life-saving tools like naloxone. Case studies on Canada’s legalization of cannabis highlight both the benefits and challenges of providing legal and regulated access to a drug. The volume further examines the evolving landscape of tobacco regulations where recent innovations such as vaping offer less harmful alternatives, yet raise significant concerns about youth uptake and public health.
Designed for policymakers, health professionals, academics, and anyone interested in creating safer communities, this collection not only presents thought-provoking ideas but also provides inspiration to take action.
About the authors
Vanessa Gruben is an associate professor and a member of the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Common Law, where she teaches health law and family law. Her research focuses on the legal and ethical aspects of assisted reproduction, including the constitutionality of Canada’s Assisted Human Reproduction Act, the legal relationship between egg donors and their physicians, the constitutionality of anonymous sperm and egg donation, access to reproductive technologies, and the existing gaps in provincial law for families created through third-party reproduction. Gruben’s work is funded by the Social Science and Humanities and Research Council, Canadian Blood Services, and the Foundation for Legal Research. She is a co-editor of the fifth edition of Canadian Health Law and Policy (LexisNexis Canada, 2017).
Line Beauchesne's profile page
Richard Elliott's profile page
Martha Jackman, Professor, Faculty of Law, French Common Law Program, University of Ottawa and Co-Director (Academic) of the SSHRC-CURA Research Project “Reconceiving Human Rights Practice,” online: www.socialrightscura.ca.
Sandra Ka Hon Chu's profile page
Emily McBain Ashfield's profile page
Joao Velloso is a PhD candidate and part-time Professor at the Department of Criminology of the University of Ottawa (Canada). He is specialized in sociolegal studies and conflict resolution in comparative perspectives, combining approaches from Legal Anthropology, Criminology, and Sociology of Law. His research deals with Administrative Law-based forms of punishment and their relationships with Criminal Law. Recent articles include: “Beyond criminocentric dogmatism: Mapping institutional forms of punishment in contemporary societies,” Punishment and Society (2013, 2); and «Au-delà de la criminalisation: L’immigration et les enjeux pour la criminologie », Criminologie (2013, 1).
Professor, Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia and Research Partner in the SSHRC-CURA Project, “Reconceiving Human Rights Practice,” online: www.socialrightscura.ca.
Excerpt: First, Do Less Harm: Harm Reduction as a Principle of Law and Policy (edited by Vanessa Gruben & Chelsea Cox; contributions by Stephanie Arlt, Line Beauchesne, Richard Elliott, Marewa Glover, Amelia Howard, Martha Jackman, Sam Halabi, Sandra Ka Hon Chu, Stephanie Lake, Emily McBain Ashfield, Ryan Pusiak, Joao Velloso & Margot Young)
The focus of [...] this book, is on three substances: opioids, tobacco, and cannabis. Harm reduction has been an element of the legal and policy response to all three but has manifested in very different ways. In regard to opioids, harm reductionists emphasize safe-consumption sites and anti-overdose drugs such as naloxone. For cannabis, the legalization and regulation of a product formerly subject to criminal sanction offers a powerful harm reduction case study of the merits and pitfalls of Canada’s pioneering approach. Harm reduction is also at the centre of a key debate regarding the use of tobacco, insofar as how to address new technology, such as e-cigarettes, that offer smokers a less harmful alternative but may also create new issues, such as how to address health concerns arising from their uptake by young people without discouraging their harm reduction potential.
