Philosophy and Vision

Stay Safe Seattle has two fundamental operating principles: harm reduction and popular education. Combining these two philosophies enables us to create successful, peer-based educational programs to reduce drug abuse and empower young people to make healthy, informed lifestyle choices.

What is Harm Reduction?
In its barest sense, harm reduction is a pragmatic approach to dealing with the problems in our society involving drug use. Harm reduction starts with the observation that whether or not it is possible to convince everyone not to use drugs or to eliminate the supply altogether, people are using drugs right now and there is no indication that this situation will change. Unfortunately, the people using drugs, especially illicit drugs, often have little knowledge about the drugs they are using, including whether they are actually getting the drug they expect. This situation makes drug experimentation far more harmful than it needs to be and creates a need for harm reduction programs. Harm reduction, therefore, attempts to reduce the harm resulting from the use of drugs by providing users with health and safety services and accurate drug information.

What about abstention?

While abstention is the only way to avoid all the harms associated with drug use, harm reduction programs provide non-abstentionist health and safety information, recognizing that many people are going to choose to experiment with drugs despite all the risks involved. Harm reduction information and services help people get facts to make educated choices about their use as well as making use as safe as possible for those who decide to partake.

There is no such thing as “safe” drug use.

No drug is entirely safe. All drug use contains inherent risks. Most people who choose to experiment with drugs realize that there are risks involved, but they often do not know what those risks are. Stay Safe Seattle provides truthful, unbiased information on the risks of using specific drugs, as well as ways to reduce those risks if one chooses to experiment.

Isn’t it better to simply tell people not to use drugs?

“Just say no” messages work well for very young children. However, they do not help the large percentage of teenagers and young adults who, despite the risks involved, choose to experiment with drugs. Simplistic slogans advocating abstention simply do not achieve their intended effect.

Shouldn’t we try to scare teenagers away from experimenting with drugs?

This is a common approach that has never worked. In fact, it often has the opposite effect. Individuals and organizations who exaggerate or lie about the dangers of drugs end up losing the trust of young people, who may then disbelieve all warnings about the risks of drug use. The claim that marijuana is as addictive as heroin, for example, or that ecstasy overdoses are as common as heroin overdoses, are simply not confirmed by young people’s direct experiences. Once they discover (as they are bound to) that the images represented in scare campaigns are false, they may think that similar claims about heroin are also lies. Truthful drug education is much more effective in reducing the use and abuse of drugs among teens than scare tactics.

What is Popular Education?
Popular education is an educational philosophy developed in Brazil by the educator Paulo Freire. As opposed to more traditional educational models that see the teacher as a large container full of knowledge and the students as empty containers that need filling, popular education sees learning as a creative process that transforms everyone, teachers and students alike. Freire’s goal through his educational practice was to increase his students’ ability to positively influence the world around them. As Stay Safe Seattle volunteers, our goal is to increase the ability of our peers to positively influence their own health and safety by providing the tools and information needed to make informed decisions.

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