CHLP Endorses Letter Asking Biden Administration to Back Harm Reduction Services

On February 28 in advance of President Biden's State of the Union address, the Drug Policy Working Group sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of National Drug Control Policy to address the Administration’s response to media controversy regarding the potential funding of safer smoking kits in the SAMHSA harm reduction funding grant.

The letter asks that the Administration more strongly back harm reduction services, that they meet directly with harm reduction organizations as a resource and to further advance their drug policy priorities: “Advancing racial equity issues in our approach to drug policy,” and “Enhancing evidence-based harm reduction efforts.”  

CHLP was one of the more than 260 organizations endorsing the letter. The President later talked about including harm reduction as one of his priorities in ending the opioid epidemic marking what may be the first mention of harm reduction in a State of the Union speech.