Health and Society

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. 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. Marewa Glover (Contributor) Marewa Glover is a Māori (New Zealand Indigenous) behavioural scientist with over 30 years' experience in public health and more than 100 research papers. Renowned for her advocacy on tobacco harm reduction, she became "Tobacco" Section Editor for the international Harm Reduction Journal in 2019. Glover was a finalist in the 2017 New Zealand Women of Influence Awards and in the 2019 New Zealander of the Year Awards. Previously a Professor of Public Health at Massey University and Chair of End Smoking NZ, she focused on designing pragmatic solutions to reduce smoking, especially during pregnancy, as well as addressing obesity and breastfeeding barriers for Māori. Amelia Howard (Contributor) Amelia Howard is a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Waterloo studying vaping innovation and the politics of technological change. Sam Halabi (Contributor) Sam Halabi is Professor at Georgetown University's School of Health, Director of the Center for Transformational Health Law, and Affiliate Researcher at the Center for Global Health Science and Security. He was previously Senior Associate VP for Health Policy and Ethics at Colorado State University as well as Professor and Director of the Center for Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship at the University of Missouri, where he received the Husch Blackwell Award for Distinguished Teaching. Halabi has authored 5 books and over 80 publications on topics such as vaccine deployment, public health ethics, data sharing, and emergency response. Ryan Pusiak (Contributor) Ryan Pusiak is Ph. D. Candidate in the Biology Departme