This long-awaited book teaches how harm reduction can be a safety net for people with substance use disorders that our current addiction treatment rejects, abandons, and leaves behind. Harm reduction is an approach to helping people who engage in high-risk activities to develop the skills and strategies to keep them and their communities safe. This can include the provision of sterile equipment, low-threshold and low-barrier care, and the acceptance of non-abstinence goals in treatment. In this novel guide, Dr. Vakharia discusses the shortcomings of the dominant “Just Say No” drug prevention messages and abstinence-only treatment approaches, introduces harm reduction strategies and technologies borne from people who use drugs themselves, and suggests various policy options available as alternatives to the current policies that criminalize drugs, drug-using equipment, and the settings in which people use drugs. The final chapter calls on the reader to destigmatize drug use and support efforts to reform our drug policies. By highlighting the large gap in our current approach to substance use – the harm reduction gap – this book is the first step for those interested in learning more about the limitations of our current approach to drug use and how to support local efforts to ensure people who use drugs and their communities can stay safe. "Dr. Vakharia gives an easy-to-follow explanation of harm reduction and shows that we can do so much more to keep our communities safe and healthy. She defines the concepts, terms, and philosophy of harm reduction in a digestible way- a rare feat for such a complex topic. Weaving in her real-life experience as a product of DARE drug prevention, then a substance use treatment counselor, and, later, a harm reduction provider, the reader witnesses her transformation and is transformed too. Dr. Vakharia shows that there are multiple paths to helping our loved ones; we must be open to the possibilities." Kassandra Frederique , e xecutive director, Drug Policy Alliance, USA "The best way to protect young people from getting into trouble with drugs, and to save lives and help communities that are already devastated by drugs, is to bridge the gap between ignorance and fear of drugs and their use spiraling out of control. Dr. Sheila Vakharia brings together her own life as a youth in the era of DARE drug education scare tactics, her experience as a counselor in drug treatment, and her mastery of drug policy to clearly argue that harm reduction bridges that gap. In this very readable and intelligent book, she lays out the ways that harm reduction can help individuals, families, and communities be knowledgeable and healthy in our relationship with intoxicating substances." Jeannie Little , LCSW, co-founder, Harm Reduction Therapy Center, USA ; co-Author of Practicing Harm Reduction Psychotherapy, 2nd ed., and Over the Influence, the Harm Reduction Guide to Controlling Your Drug and Alcohol Use, 2nd ed. "A smart, compassionate and highly readable introduction to a better way of understanding and managing drugs and drug-related problems. Sheila Vakharia has written a one-of-a-kind book that meets the reader where they are and doesn't just leave them there. She brings them to harm reduction." Maia Szalavitz , author of Undoing Drugs: How Harm Reduction Is Changing the Future of Drugs and Addiction , author of New York Times Bestseller Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Drugs, and contributing opinion writer for the New York Times "From the origins of the term “heroin” to the ongoing commitment to prohibition, Sheila Vakharia provides an easy-to-read and accessible explanation about why the ongoing War on Drugs is failing and a description of the hope and effectiveness offered by harm reduction approaches to substance use in the US. At a time when more people are dying from substance use causes, Vakharia makes the case for harm reduction effectiveness, breadth of potential impact, and practicality. Readers of Vakharia’s Harm Reduction Gap will come away with more knowledge, insight, and hope that there are available interventions and strategies that can address our most pressing substance use problems." Ricky N. Bluthenthal , PhD, professor, Department of Populations and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, USA and founding board member of the National Harm Reduction Coalition " The Harm Reduction Gap makes a compelling case on behalf of everyone whose needs are not met by directives to abstain from drug use. It analyzes the origins and evolution of the drug war, and our "two-tier system of 'criminals' and 'patients.'" It explains the failings and limitations of treatment models, with memorable examples from the author's personal experience. And it convincingly shows why harm reduction―as a set of strategies, a mindset and a movement―must lead the response to the overdose crisis and wider injustices. The boo