A brief history of the principles of harm reduction and a recap of the team’s trip to Puerto Rico for the National Harm Reduction Conference!

A brief history of the great migration that brought thousands of Puerto Ricans to the city of Rochester, NY!

Over the past 30 years, the number of overdose cases in the United States has increased from 20,000 cases a year to 70,369 in 2019. Many more suffered from substance use disorders and had non-fatal overdoses, which surely had social and emotional implications. These numbers keep on rising nowadays especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The opioid crisis was declared an epidemic back in 2017 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, however, more effort needs to be put into advocacy and education (“What is the U.S. Opioid Epidemic?”, 2021).

Although attempting to get into detox programs and successfully quitting addiction can be very difficult, informing anyone who uses drugs about available services is easy and can save their life. There are various programs put in place in New York State to address the crisis and we would like to list a little bit of information about each, hoping it will reach those who need it most.