Harm Reduction After the War on Drugs: Reimagining New York’s Treatment System
Harm reduction offers a powerful roadmap for building drug treatment systems that keep people supported and rooted in their communities. This dynamic hybrid event will showcase critical conversations concerning a health‑first, community‑led approach to substance use care that prioritizes the populations criminalized and marginalized by the War on Drugs. Cohosted by the National Black Harm Reduction Network (NBHRN), Data Collaborative for Justice (DCJ), From Punishment to Public Health (P2PH), and Center for Justice Innovation (CJI), the event will bring together policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and advocates to imagine what comes next.
Anchored by the upcoming release of NBHRN’s new analytic report and complementary research from DCJ and CJI, the program will highlight promising models that move beyond coercion toward evidence‑based and culturally rooted support, including harm-reduction-oriented outpatient care, street outreach, and community‑based residential programs. Speakers will chart a data-driven forward path for opioid settlement investments, drug policy reform, and local innovations that center health and justice for people with substance use disorders who are impacted by New York’s criminal legal system.
📍MONDAY | MAY 4 | 9AM-3PM | IN-PERSON AT JOHN JAY COLLEGE & LIVESTREAM OPTION
🔗IN-PERSON REGISTRATION
🔗VIRTUAL REGISTRATION
Sessions will include the following (speaker announcements coming soon):
Opening Plenary/Keynote: Harm Reduction as the New Default: Reimagining Care After the War on Drugs
- Positioning harm reduction as an effective model for substance use treatment
- Investing opioid settlement funds in initiatives focused on a health-first approach to substance use treatment
Panel 1 | Historical Context: From Rockefeller to Now: How Carceral Drug Policy Shaped New York’s Treatment System
- Historical overview of punitive drug policy and its effects on treatment access
- How the War on Drugs criminalized marginalized communities, leading to a cycle of substance use and incarceration
Panel 2 | Health-Justice Intersection: When Health and Justice Don’t Meet: Closing the Gap Between Care Systems and Legal Systems
- Policy recommendations
- Racial disparities in access to harm reduction and drug treatment services
- Health and public safety: problems and solutions
Panel 3 | Promising Practices: On the Ground and In the Community: Harm Reduction Innovations Redefining Treatment in New York.
- Innovating harm reduction outpatient treatment
- Street outreach as a vehicle for engaging communities in efforts to provide education about substance use treatment and expand harm reduction access.