Tackling Harm Reduction, Human Rights and Drug Uses on Recreational Environments: Tensions, Potentialities and Learnings from the Kosmicare Project (Portugal)

• Main Authors: Mónica Soares, Maria Carmo Carvalho, Mónica Valbom, Tânia Rodrigues
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra 2017-05-01
• Series: Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais
• Subjects: decriminalization; drug policy; drug uses; harm reduction; human rights; recreational environments
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rccs/6535
• ISSN: 0254-1106; 2182-7435

This paper is organized into four parts of discussion. Firstly, we present the Portuguese decriminalization law and the central role of harm reduction within this framework. The second section discusses the mainstream meanings ascribed to the ‘HR double’ mainly anchored in problematic drug uses. The third section highlights the need to take into account the specificities of recreational drug uses, users and environments. Thus, the paper highlights the experience of the Kosmicare Project at the Boom Festival, which combines principles of harm reduction, crisis intervention and Grof’s approach. The fourth section draws upon the project’s experience itself and in the idea of the normalization of drug uses to acknowledge and to discuss the potentialities, tensions and limitations of these contributions when it comes to analyzing and constructing a strong version of the ‘HR double’.