Institutionalization of harm reduction strategies within the Canadian political agenda: Issues and limits of current conceptualization
The goal of this study was to get to know and understand the conceptualization and the implantation of the harm reduction (HR) approach within the objectives and the priorities of the Canadian state (political agenda). In order to do so, we made a vertical and horizontal analysis of Canada’s Drug Strategy (CSA). At the end of this analysis, we observed an abusive recuperation of the HR approach in the Canadian context, by the adoption of a conceptualization that underlines the absence of real divide in the face of the notion of abstinence. We also noted a loss of the humanism generated by conceptual losses of control and the adoption of a “risk management” model that stigmatizes the users.