ABSTRACT
I didn’t know that I was practicing harm reduction. I was just doing what worked for my clients. Having completed my master’s degree in the 1990s, I didn’t learn much about substance use disorders. The little that I was taught was that people who use drugs or alcohol are “addicted”, need inpatient treatment, should go to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), and had to admit that they were powerless. If they did not do these things, they were in denial and had to hit bottom before they could be helped.
