HAMS Wholeheartedly Endorses Moderation Management

 MM founder Audrey Kishline had a great idea–not everyone who sometimes drinks too much needs to go to AA. Problem drinkers who have had only occasional problems with alcohol and who are not drinking large amounts daily are more likely to benefit from a moderation program than a program of total abstinence. MM has proven very successful with people who fall into this category. It is unfortunate that Audrey herself did not.

 

I do not wish to harp on Audrey, those of you who know me know that I knew Audrey and was a member of MM during Audrey’s Minnesota days. Even back then I was working a harm reduction plan which involved getting schnockered once a week and abstaining the other six days. Audrey did not approve, as well she should not have, as it did not belong in MM. But since there were NO alcohol harm reduction programs in those days she did not throw me out.

 

Where could I have gone? AA has never made me abstain–it nearly made me drink myself to death.

 

This is why I founded HAMS. For the many who fit neither AA nor MM nor any other approach. Many of my friends from my MM days have done excellently with MM. I am very happy for them. MM limits would have never fit me–but I am infinitely better than I was before.

 

MM–we salute thee for the good work thou hast done.

 

For those who need another way–HAMS is one possible approach.

 

pct

 

Heroin and Alcohol

It is my firm conviction that the harm reduction strategies used to deal with alcohol use are at heart identical to those used for injection drug use.

When a heroin user comes to a needle exchange for clean needles no one would ever think of saying to this person “I think you use too much heroin. You may not have clean needles because I think you should pursue a goal of abstinence from heroin.” It should be clear as crystal that the greater the problem with heroin, the more there is a need to practice harm reduction.

In the early days of needle exchange some attempts were made to make the supply of clean needles contingent upon the user complying with some conditions such as participation in a program aimed at abstinence. What we found was that this simply does not work. When the supply of clean needles is made conditional, large numbers of users do not come back and return to sharing dirty needles instead.

When an injection drug user comes in to a needle exchange the proper thing to do is to thank the person for helping to get dirty needles off the streets, because this person is indeed doing a public service.

It is our contention that harm reduction alcohol is the same as harm reduction for injection drug use. The greater the problem that an individual has with alcohol, the more that person is in need of harm reduction strategies. People will choose alcohol abstinence as a goal only if and when they personally are ready to do so. Attempts to coerce abstinence from the outside will only lead to increased alcohol abuse and ever greater harms as a result.

I am in complete disagreement with Marc Kern’s statement that “Harm reduction is not for everyone. Clearly some people need to abstain from drinking.” http://www.highsobriety.net

Yes–it might be wonderful if everyone would simply abstain from heroin or alcohol or other bad habits just because we wished it to be so. The world does not work that way. AA’s Triennial Surveys tell us that only five percent of new AA members are still attending AA meetings at the end of the first year. Hester and Miller’s Handbook of Alcoholism Treatment Approaches: Effective Alternatives shows us that the most commonly used abstinence-based treatments in the US not only have extremely high failure rates, but that they may also be actively harmful for some clients.

Abstinence succeeds when chosen by the client, not by the therapist. For all others harm reduction is the most effective way of minimizing the damages done by alcohol abuse to the individual user and to society at large.

Marijuana Laws Kill Alcoholics

We generally shy away from using the word “alcoholic” at HAMS, but there are some severely dependent drinkers who experience severe and life-threatening withdrawals virtually every time that they drink. Many of these drinkers would prefer to give up alcohol and substitute marijuana instead–since marijuana does not induce similar withdrawal symptoms.

Research has shown that many highly dependent drinkers can successfully substitute marijuana for alcohol. We can see an example of this in Tod Mikuriya’s article Cannabis as a Substitute for Alcohol: A Harm-Reduction Approach

The problem is that for many homeless alcoholics the price of marijuana is just too high to make it a viable substitute for alcohol. Moreover there are many places in the US where possession of marijuana is still considered a highly criminal offense and results in jail.

It is past time that these archaic and puritanical laws were repealed. Lives could be saved.

Ottawa Wet House

For details about the Ottawa wet house see the story
How some homeless alcoholics are drinking their way to good health

Drinking Law That Kills Teens

There is one asinine law on the books which guarantees an increase in teenage deaths from drunk driving and alcohol poisoning as well as guaranteeing an increase in teenage date rape, unwanted teen pregnancy, and teen STDs including HIV. This is the law which makes it illegal for parents to host parties for their children and their children’s friends which serve alcohol.

Such a law will do nothing to stop teenagers from drinking alcohol; all it will serve to do is to drive teenagers away from a safe and supervised drinking environment to an unsafe and unsupervised one.

If parents are allowed to host such parties then they can see to it that no one attending the party drives. They can allow guests to sleep over until they are sober enough to leave in the morning. And a chaperon can see that guests do not engage in insane drinking which leads to alcohol poisoning. A chaperon can also insure that this is not an occasion for an orgy.

Other countries in the world encourage parents to teach children safe and sane drinking behaviors in the home. The United States is very backwards on this one.

US News and World Report has an article on this topic: A Host of Trouble

Seaton House – Toronto Canada

The Annex Harm Reduction Program at Seaton House is home to 140 homeless chronic alcohol abusers. Many of these men have resorted to drinking things like rubbing alcohol or mouthwash while living on the streets. Rubbing alcohol and mouthwash are much easier to shoplift than whiskey.

The Annex supplies its clients with monitored quantities of wine (one glass per hour) to help keep them safe and reduce further harm from alcohol use. It is reported that clients at the Annex have reduced their drinking from levels as high as 46 drinks a day to levels as low as 8 drinks a day.

More information about Seaton House can be found at the Seaton House home page at:

http://www.toronto.ca/housing/sock/see.htm

and in the wikipedia article on Seaton House at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaton_House

HAMS – A Harm Reduction Approach to Alcohol

Programs which insist on abstinence as the only way to treat a drug or alcohol problem have never been very successful. AA’s Triennial report that only five percent of new members are still attending meetings at the end of the first year. Drop out rates from abstinence only programs are also notoriously high.

Harm reduction programs such as needle exchange, on the other hand, have a very high client retention rate. This is because harm reduction programs do not impose their own goals on clients. What we learned from needle exchange is that any attempt to impose an agenda on a client is a sure way of insuring that the client does not return. Unconditional acceptance of the client is necessary.

It is withthese expereinces in mind that HAMS was formed. HAMS is a harm reduction program for people who drink alcohol which encourages every positive change. HAMS supports goals of safe drinking, reduced drinking or abstinence from alcohol.

The acronym HAMS stands for “Harm reduction, Abstinence and Moderation Support”. The HAMS web site can be found here: http://hamsnetwork.org