The City Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday in favor of restarting the city’s clean-needle exchange program. The once controversial approach to reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C among intravenous drug users has become a no-brainer for many municipalities. And with the weight of Mayor Jerry Sanders and both police and fire chiefs behind the program, San Diego has joined the growing number of cities implementing a needle exchange program.

Clean-needle exchange is a form of harm reduction, the topic of this week’s cover story, “Out of harm’s way: an alternative approach to crystal meth recovery.” Harm reduction seeks to mitigate potential harm in behaviors that carry risks, such as casual sex and substance abuse, without attempting to prohibit these behaviors. For example, abstinence-only messages in sex education work for only a percentage of potentially sexually active people. Harm reduction casts a wide enough net to catch those who have sex regardless. Teaching safe-sex practices is a form of harm reduction.

The same is true when addressing substance abuse using the harm reduction model. While the ultimate goal is to get people off addictive and harmful substances, the reality is that people are using and many will continue to use. The 12-step approach works, but fails in providing essential support services to members of the community unwilling to commit to full abstinence from alcohol and/or drug use.

Tom Wall, a marriage and family therapist who specializes in crystal meth addiction, says in this week’s cover story: “There are about 20 million confirmed alcoholics in the U.S. But only about 1.5 to 2 million are actually in 12-step treatments. That’s 90 percent or more still out there. The question is, then, what do we do to help that 90 percent who are not ready to commit to full abstinence?”

The answer is harm reduction.

A few years back, Stephen Johnson, former Stepping Stone board chair, and David Contois, project manager for knowcrystal.org, launched a harm reduction campaign here in San Diego in response to the growing crystal meth epidemic in the gay men’s community. While the project was successful, it took more than a little cajoling to get support for the campaign. The common misconception is that harm reduction encourages drug use.

“No one promotes the use of meth except users and dealers,” says Dr. Lionel Conner, a psychiatrist who has been working with harm reduction in London for more than 20 years, as quoted in this issue’s cover story. “Our [harm reduction advocates’] goal is to get people moving toward a day when they no longer believe they have the need to use. A day when they understand that they can connect with others in such a way that fills their life in as satisfying [a] way as they perceive their relationships to be when they are using.”

And we echo Conner’s sentiments. The Gay & Lesbian Times is a supporter of harm reduction, not of drug use. We can’t deny that many in our community are not ready or are unwilling to quit using crystal meth, but we will not turn our backs on them. If we cannot convince our family members, lovers, friends and community members to quit, then we will provide them with as much information about responsible drug use as possible, so that active users may make life-saving decisions when it matters most.

Today, harm reduction has been embraced by a once skeptical community. Sadly, this step forward has come about because we have seen many in our community caught in the grips of a crystal meth epidemic. And with Pride weekend around the corner, traditionally a time when we see a sharp spike in drug use, we are desperate to get information out to those most at risk.

Next weekend, knowcrystal.org is launching in San Diego. Knowcrystal.org provides factual information without judgment or stigma to gay or bisexual men who use crystal, or know gay or bisexual men who use. The launch, which takes place Friday, July 21, at 8:00 p.m. at Kung Food in Hillcrest, includes a free screening of Todd Ahlberg’s documentary Meth. Through a series of interviews with more than 10 men, Ahlberg presents what has been called an unflinching look at the truth and consequences of crystal meth use in the gay male community (see interview with Ahlberg on page 52). For more information, visit www.knowcrystal.org.