What Vermont Harm Reduction Advocates?

Vermont Harm Reduction Advocates is a coalition of organizations and individual Vermonters dedicated to ending the harms caused by the state’s drug laws and stigma, while advancing health-centered, equitable, and human rights–based solutions."

We believe that:
1. People who use drugs deserve dignity.
  People should not be stigmatized, marginalized, and subjected to traumas such as incarceration because of their use of drugs.
2. Criminalization increases harm.
  Laws criminalizing drug possession deter people from seeking voluntary health services and create systemic barriers to obtaining jobs, housing, credit, licenses, and more. Systems of punishment are also wasteful, expensive, and ineffective.
3. Vermont must invest in systems of care.
  We must adapt our laws and enhance our systems of care to meet the needs of people who use drugs and their communities. These policies must promote equitable health care and be grounded in both evidence and lived experience.