What If We Pay People to Stop Using Drugs?
What If We Pay People to Stop Using Drugs? Traditional treatments often take place in expensive facilities, demand total abstinence, and rely on punitive methods of control. A harm reduction model turns all of that on its head. Illustration by Ran Zheng Tyrone Clifford Jr. remembers the first time he tried methamphetamine. “It was everything, all at once,” he said; a whirring rush of euphoric energy. It was the 1990s, and Tyrone was in his early twenties. He was HIV-positive, watching as the AIDS epidemic tore through his community in San Francisco. People he loved were dying. He wanted...