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Lawmakers refine 'harm reduction' language and add law-enforcement seat as debate centers on scope and safeguards
Summary
A bipartisan compromise rewrites references to "harm reduction" as "reduction of societal and individual harm," adds law-enforcement consultation and a police-chiefs seat on the governor's commission, and keeps existing programs such as Doorways and syringe exchange in statute while excluding supervised drug-injection sites from authorization.
Sponsors and stakeholders told the House Health Committee that refining the statutory language on "harm reduction" would let the state's opioid-response work continue while adding safeguards for communities.
Representative David Nagel, who helped shepherd the legislation, said the governor's commission on alcohol and other drugs already funds harm-reduction activities through a formula based on an alcohol-abatement fund and that placing an explicit, statutory definition in law would align the commission's terms with federal grant language and clarify allowable activities. He described harm reduction broadly as tertiary prevention: measures to minimize damage from active…
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