HARM REDUCTION PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES IN MEXICO: A HUMAN RIGHTS
PERSPECTIVE IN CENTROS DE INTEGRACIÓN JUVENIL (CIJ)
Developing country scholarship applicant Karen Álvarez* 1
Abstract
“Individuals who use drugs do not forfeit their human rights”.
Navi Pillay UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Background: The Mexican position on harm reduction regards drug dependency as a
chronic relapsing disorder that requires particular actions for several groups of
individuals within a human and pragmatic framework based on a comprehensive
approach to prevent and/or reduce the negative social and health consequences of an
addiction. Mexican government agrees with the International Narcotics Control Board
(INCB), which has advised that reducing the negative health and social consequences of
drug use is a part of the demand reduction and could never be a substitute. Harm
reduction is defined by the sanitary norm NOM 028- SSA2-2009 as “a set of measures to
avoid or reduce risky situation and limit the harms associated to psychoactive substance
use”.
Presentation:
The presentation is composed of two sections. The first one is about the harm reduction
practices of Centros de Integración Juvenil (CIJ)1 in Mexico, which is for groups of drug
users that 1) are in vulnerable circumstances, 2) have an advanced addiction and/or 3)
can hardly access to treatment and care. The main projects are the Heroin Substitution
and Maintenance Program and the distribution of health kits (sterile needles and
syringes, water for injection, alcohol swabs cotton and wool filters, condoms and “safe
injecting” advice flyers, that exposed the drug-related harms as the transmission of
blood-borne pathogens through the sharing of drug paraphernalia). Also, CIJ provides
harm reduction on nicotine and alcohol products and it is focused on reducing the
damage to the user and, in case of tobacco, the passive smoker (secondhand smoker
(SHS) or environmental tobacco smoker (ETS)). Alcohol harm reduction includes
moderate drinking programs, intervention programs with bartenders and standard drinks
measure. The programs of nicotine consisted in restricted smoking in public places and
workplaces, provision of nicotine gum, nicotine patches, nicotine inhalers and smokeless
cigarettes and advertising of smoking cessation treatment. The human rights perspective
is highlighted in this work considered as the window of opportunity for a later intervention
to hinder sustained (and if possible, total) abstinence and support the social reinsertion.
This section will close with the results. The presentation will then turn to harm reduction
principles by introducing a proposal of Mexican harm reduction public policy aimed to
increase the services and improve the existing work with financial and technical
resources. This policy would be a mechanism to strengthen national drug users’ human
rights protection and is expected to play a key role in drug policies.
*Contact details and author affiliations Karen Álvarez is Head of the International Affairs
Department of Centros de Integración Juvenil (CIJ) and part-time postgraduate student
of the Master's Degree in Democracy and Human Rights in the Latin American Social
Sciences Institute (FLACSO, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales in
Spanish)2. Her line of research is human rights-based approach to harm reduction public
policy and policy formulation in Latin America, particularly in Mexico.
E-mails: karen.alvarez@cij.gob.mx and karen.alvarez@flacso.edu.mx