Amy Hamm: Professor-activists want ‘harm reduction’ for Kindergarteners 

A homeless man sits in the rain smoaking with a crack pipe in his hand in downtown Ottawa Friday morning. Photo by TONY CALDWELL, Postmedia

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A group of academics and researchers is working hard to normalize the idea of radical harm reduction for children as young as four or five.

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In June, the group, which goes by the name Anchoring Change, published a guide on drug education for Canadian youth, beginning in kindergarten, that suspiciously rebrands “harm reduction” as “harm minimization.” The group’s “guiding principles,” listed in the report, included trauma-informed practices; equity, diversity, inclusion and decolonization; culturally responsive practices; student voice and harm minimization.

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The language used throughout the guide appears to be intentionally vague so as to avoid controversy. While it does not contain explicit descriptions of harm reduction interventions, it is laden with mentions of the importance of “anti-stigma” approaches to drug use and providing “stigma-free information,” and suggests that drug use not be prevented in all cases, but merely delayed or reduced. It describes “age-appropriate literacy” for students without citing examples of what this looks like. Can kindergarteners be shown crack pipes? Who knows, because “developmentally appropriate” can mean drastically different things to different teachers. The guide also mentions “confidential pathways to brief intervention and care,” suggesting that parents may be left in the dark about their children’s substance use.

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The guide has received glowing coverage from the CBC, which indicated that its recommendations were “age-appropriate” and quoted a researcher who offered reassurance that kindergarteners would not be given “detailed drug education.”

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The groups involved in creating the harm-minimization-for-kids report include Wellstream (a University of British Columbia research initiative on youth substance abuse), the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), the Canadian Association of School System Administrators (CASSA), Physical and Health Education (PHE) Canada, and the Students Commission of Canada.

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Emily Jenkins, the scientific director of Wellstream and a nursing professor at the University of British Columbia, told the Post in an email that Anchoring Change deliberately chose the term “harm minimization” because it more accurately describes what its nationwide education standard on drug education is trying to do.

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” ‘Harm reduction’ in common usage refers to a specific set of services, things like naloxone distribution or supervised consumption, which are oriented toward people who are already using substances,” she said. ” ‘Harm minimization’ spans the full continuum: preventing use in the first place, delaying initiation for those who haven’t started, and reducing harm if use does occur.

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“In a school setting, where the large majority of students are not using substances, prevention and delay are the primary emphasis. A term tied specifically to services for those who are actively using substances would misdescribe the developmental, whole-population scope of the work, which is why we use this language.”

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