Attitudes Towards Harm Reduction Programs

The current study aimed to investigate reasons for supporting harm reduction approaches to treating drug addiction. The study used Brickman et al.'s (1982) models of helping as a framework to determine the relationship between where a participant attributed the responsibility for the problem and solution to drug addiction and support for particular approaches to treating drug addiction. It was hypothesized that 1) attributing the responsibility for the problem but not the solution on the drug user will predict greater support for the discipline approach of treating addiction, 2) attributing the responsibility for the problem and solution on the drug user will predict greater support for the support group approach, 3) attributing the responsibility for the solution but not the problem on the drug user will predict greater support for the harm reduction approach. Participants for this study consisted of 96 undergraduate students (27 male, 69 female) from a Canadian university. Participants completed surveys to assess their support of each drug treatment approach, and to gauge their attribution of responsibility of drug addiction. Results indicated that individuals did not differentiate between responsibility for the problem and solution, thus not supporting the hypotheses. This may demonstrate that, in the context of drug addiction, responsibility for the problem and solution are viewed as one and the same. Overall, attributing responsibility for the problem and solution on external sources predicted more helping.