Describe the harm reduction approach to dealing with drug abuse.

Harm reduction is a pragmatic approach to diminishing the individual and social harm associated with drug useespecially the risk of HIV infection. It is an effort designed to prevent criminal prosecution from being more damaging to the individual drug user than the relevant drug itself. The approach encompasses a wide range of drug user services including making clean needles and syringes available to injecting drug users, increasing access to methadone treatment, and providing addicts with clean supplies of the drugs to which they are addicted.