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Peter Gerdes's avatar

Part of the problem I have with the abstinence talk is that it often seems to presuppose that abstinence itself is a good in its own right rather than being a tool that can help people lead a good life -- no different in kind than medication assisted treatment or spirituality -- something that can benefit some people but isn't a goal in itself or necessarily the best means for everyone.

And yes, if all you mean is the idea that some people would be better off doing no drugs of a given kind than sure it's not incompatible with anything but that's just not what people are reacting to when they push back on the abstinence approach. Yes, we need to avoid just falling into affiliative groups and should try to speak preciscely but at the same time that doesn't mean we should ignore the fact that often when people speak about abstinence or harm reduction they are importing a broader background value system.

I mean, think of it by analogy to politics. Yes, I don't like the way politics has become all affiliative and vibe rather than policy based. But at the same time, you shouldn't ignore the fact that you do understand that a certain kind of rhetoric does predict that a politician is likely to behave in ways you don't like.

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Becoming the Rainbow's avatar

When confronted with a less than wonderful hotel, one can take an abstinence approach of checking out, but, as your post implies, there are softer, gentler ways of reducing harm: cognitively reframing the experience to focus on the good, lowering expectations, deciding to take a bath rather than braving the jacuzzi, etc. In all areas of life, we´re constantly navigating the abstinence/harm reduction continuum and there´s no one right answer for every question. I´m grateful for the range of harm reduction options, cause otherwise my partner would of long ago divorced me.

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