However, Allison Herens, who has served as Philadelphia’s harm-reduction coordinator for about one year, said she hoped the effort to teach people how to use the strips would extend the general conversation about harm reduction during the opioid crisis.
“Just like every other harm-reduction effort, it’s not going to save everyone’s life,” Herens said about the test strip initiative. “But it opens the door to conversations with people to help reinforce safer [drug-using] practices. It opens it up to a much bigger conversation that should be happening on a regular basis.”
By Courtenay Harris Bond
The Collected Works of Jim Garrow 