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Do you encourage Harm Reduction in your day to day life?

frizzantik

frizzantik

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Sep 19, 2002
Messages
14,280
Location
California
A lot of us on bluelight talk a lot about harm reduction, but how many people actually practice it in their regular lives? do you encourage others to take a harm minimazation attitude toward drugs?


the main harm reduction strategy i practice on a day to day basis is to make sure i have good pot haha. cause if i dont, i end up smoking a lot and i can tell my lungs suffer because of it.

i find not a lot of people that i interact with aren't that interested in harm reduction, or they dont feel like it matters to them (perhaps they are too young)
 
when nothing else will fit up my nostrals, i'll usually switch over to smoking crack ;)

but seriously, i've gotten better at harm reduction as i've come to read my own body more adeptly. as far as other people go, i usually don't say anything unless they ask. i've found that people don't want a lecture; what i would say just goes in one ear and out the other.

when talking about drugs with non (illegal) drug users, my main thing is encouraging older people to use pot for their medical problems. however, if they don't ask for my advice, they won't hear my advice.
 
If Im ever involved in a conversation about drug use, and the the topic comes up, Ill bring up my harm reduction stance. I rarely use drugs anymore, but I still practice harm reduction when I do.
 
I practise harm reduction and benefit maximisation :) I mean, why would I use drugs in a way that did not minimise risk and maximise gain (as I define them)? I don't know any other drug users in real life, so I can't really encourage others to use drugs sensibly, except via forums such as BL. I do assert and defend harm reduction/decriminalisation ideas to anyone who will listen, though.
 
I always try to tell people the recommended dose for something, but the people around here are idiots and think "more is better"

I tried. :\
 
Yes and it's pretty easy because there's so much misinformation and uneducated people out there when it comes to drugs.

I have instructed people in the following:
*Proper dosages
*Unsafe combonations.
*Proper ways to stay hydrated when using drugs.
*Safer injection methods.
*Cold water extractions.
*Post and pre load regiments.
*etc. etc.

I know lots of people really enjoy the social aspects of BL so not to sound like an ass, but if you're not advocating harm reduction in your everyday life then you really have no buisness being on BL.

I don't really consider BL to be a site for drug users, it's a site for sensible drug users.
 
having a 2 month old child around had caused me to practice harm minimisation due to being more responsible = take less drugs due to money and being too fucked to be responsible holding the baba.

Also being on a high dose of m'done has stopped me taking most other drugs as i dont feel em, they become less worth taking = result harm reduction
 
I am always up for discussing harm minimization versus the "just say no attitude" / "war on drugs". Even if my parents bring it up, you bet I'll defend it to my last breath.
 
Just today, I basically gave a lecture on safe drug use in my botany lab. We were using large amounts of ether for a chromatography experiment, so envitably the drug topic comes up.

There were people in there that did not know the differences between crack and regular cocaine.. some that thougth crack was the one you IV. We spent the last 30min or so of the lab (after the prof left and everything was done), with everyone gathered around me asking questions.

Its not normally anything that extreme, but when I hear bad information I will correct people. When I'm around others using drugs and they are doing something jacked up, I throw out the facts. It makes a difference... I know, because I've overhead some of these people at parties regurgitating the information I've given them.

I just make a point of never making people feel stupid. It helps quite a bit.
 
If ever I see my friends who take drugs about to do something potentially dangerous, I always try my best to pursuade them otherwise, and similarly, try to wage a one-man war against drug myths.

I recently had to pursuade a friend not to take alcohol and cocaine in the same instance, and more importantly, I feel, WHY, I explained that the reason for it was due to the formation of the cometabolite cocaethylene, which is more toxic to the heart, although psychoactive, than cocaine is.

I actually take more care with other people than I do with myself, for some reason, I seem to take stupid risks, even though I know the dangers sometimes, the main reason I am careful with my own body, is because I wouldn't want to subject my fiancee to losing me, or making myself ill, and putting her through the shit of being unsure if I would make it or not, she means too much to me for me to put her through the worry of me doing something stupid and it coming back to bite me in the ass.



Greylightersmokeweed, I already reported two of your posts tonight, and I am nodding off on DHCs, so please try to post something that is at least at a vaguely mamallian level of intelligence so I don't have to report you again8)
 
still trying to make the pharmacies sell us syringes. god bless cali.

marijuana is a great HR method.

fighting againt this drug addict as uneducated dimwit stereotype sucks,
 
All the time. It's how I help people out in my own little way :)

- telling kids not to use coircidin/duster/dramamine/datura
- hyperventilate before nitrous
- keep hydrated
- don't drive while high

Lot's of kids around here are dumb and I try to help them out :) haha sometimes I get calls from kids about what doses to take with certain things (amps, benzos mostly)
 
Personally I think the best harm reduction is researching and knowing the drugs you use.

Since I know the worse drug effects I tend to echo what the above poster says.

I realise people don't listen unless it's life or death. So I only give out the critical advice. Ironically people will pop their ears up at any advice you give on bennificial supplements or drugs.

Strange how they won't listen to lifesaving advice but look to potentiate their life.
 
I often find myself practising psychological harm reduction. That is; working out how to relate to people so they are receptive to safer using info. As many people have noted, giving others safer using advice is often not appreciated - but that's basically because it's very human to resist being told what to do. Heaven help me if there aint some sort of devil-inspired anti-authoritarian streak in these goldarned drug users too!!! ;) Sometimes the softly softly approach gets better results - trying not to ram info down people's throats, but understanding the context of their drug use first. Getting wasted can be about relinquishing control - being careful about your drug use can run counter to this goal. And if you have a low self-esteem, for example, doing things more safely can actually be a real challenge, even when you know it is the right thing to do.

So yeah - I practise harm reduction in my day to day, but it's getting more subtle as I understand its nuances more.
 
I preach harm minimisation all the time. It's more a selfish thing than i guess an altruistic thing - if less people fuck themselves up annd die and hurt themselves on drugs - the more chance we have of getting them decriminalised.

I also am careful in my intake and hhave set rules that i have broken a few times but in genneral i have been quite good about.

Sadly I get the feeling that alot of people on BL seem to forget the basic purpose of the site!
 
I'm a harm-minimizer for the people around me but not really for myself unfortunately
 
When in doubt, I always encourage some good marijuana use. It keeps kids out of trouble! Usually all the past 5 minute delusions of grandeur and stupidity fade once they realize how hungry and lazy they are.
 
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