Some California Democrats have recently discovered the concept of "harm reduction" when it comes to a variety of drug-related matters. As the National Harm Reduction Coalition explains, this idea "accepts, for better or worse, that licit and illicit drug use is part of our world and chooses to work to minimize its harmful effects."
Harm reduction is largely a reaction to the nation's failed War on Drugs, which treated drug use—including addictive and destructive hard drugs as well as non-addictive drugs that people use for recreational and medical purposes—as criminal matters. Unfortunately, many of the same people who tout this anti-Prohibitionist idea only apply it selectively, but more on that later.
