"Users are Losers." —McGruff the Crime Dog

"I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who need reasons when you've got heroin?" —Trainspotting

On Cockburn Street in the medieval city of Edinburgh, behind a brightly spray-painted store façade sandwiched in between a record shop and a bookstore, can be found a solution to some very modern problems. Adopting "Know the Score" as its motto, Crew 2000 began in 1991 as a grassroots movement started by an eclectic group of dance-party organizers, club goers, activists, and health professionals. In the words of the organization's Web site, the organization neither "condone[s] or condemn [s] drug use but. . . recognize[s] that it is widespread and that there are steps that can be taken to reduce any potential harm." In the United States, harm-reduction is a somewhat controversial position; in the UK, Crew 2000 and other organizations have been making it work for over a decade.

Much as with its sister organization in the U.S., DanceSafe, the Crew 2000 credo revolves around street-level education. Just as the 21-and-over drinking age in the U.S. has led to an increase in binge drinking on college campuses and elsewhere, abstinence-only education glamorizes the forbidden activity while simultaneously stigmatizing it and preventing the dissemination of helpful facts.

"The pitfalls of abstinence-only education is that you exclude people who have chosen to use," said a Crew 2000 staff member, who asked to remain anonymous. "You have no right to tell people what to do with their bodies."

Crew 2000 is funded by a combination of private charities, government grants, and selling training services to those organizations that can pay (other training is done on a pro-bono basis). Its board of directors is composed both of professional administrators and social workers and actual volunteers and staff members with the street experience to know what works and what does not in the realm of sex and drug education. Most Crew 2000 volunteers and staff, according to the members we spoke to, also are or were drug users. (And, so far as their sex-education efforts go, we can assume that few are virgins.)

It is this ear to the ground that makes Crew 2000 such a success: Underground subcultures are notoriously volatile. Tastes in music, clothes, identities, and drugs change constantly. By the time they're found out by the mainstream and either marketed and exploited or legislated against, they've mutated into new forms. Crew 2000 has the knowledge of these subcultures, and the credibility to both be listened to both accurately track drug use, and to take their harm-reduction philosophy to the streets and clubs. Thus far, they have been remarkably successful.

The philosophy of harm reduction recognizes that people are not angels, and that some will choose to participate in particularly pleasurable activities such as taking Ecstasy, dancing all night, and then going home and screwing. While not actively promotiong such activities, it is possible to help people stay safe. For instance, with a "C-card," teenagers can stop in and pick up free condoms. Crew 2000 also offers drug-testing kits, so that Ecstasy pills can be checked for adulterants. (The risk of harmful contaminants is, of course, one of the major dangers of an underground drug market.) Their goal, in short, is to both provide information so that people who participate in risky activities can do so in the safest way possible, while those who do develop health problems of one kind or another can get the help they need. The posters at the right, for instance, tell readers what to do if someone ODs, and how to avoid heatstroke while dancing on Ecstasy.

As another example, one Crew 2000 sex-ed informational card takes the official U.S. government stance on abstinence-only education, smacks it around, runs its underwear up the flagpole-and, in the process, probably saves a lot of human suffering. Taking a wholly realistic view of the fact that, yes, people of all ages do have sex, and written in the language everyone uses every day, the card enlists the reader's help in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases:

"Face it, sex kicks ass!" it reads. "But just because you're out there fucking doesn't mean you have to get fucked up in the process. The spread of HIV and AIDS are by no means under control and it's up to you to take precautions."

In contrast, the situation that exists in the United States right now has not changed much since Margaret Sanger's arrest for giving information on contraception in the early 1900s. In those days, dissemination of birth control material was illegal because of the Comstock Laws, yet then, as now, there was a group of men and women who either financially or physically could not afford to have more children. The results were high rates of infant mortality and deaths from complications in childbirth, particularly amongst poor immigrant women. Yet, people kept on having sex, as they have since we evolved from the primordial ooze. Expecting teenagers to abstain is not a realistic strategy; making condoms available to them is.

Another excellent example of the harm-reduction philosophy, this time as applied to hard-core drug use, is a book of 30 tear-off cards meant for heroin users to give to their friends. By targeting, in a realistic fashion, the way people become addicts, the cards go far beyond "Just Say No" platitudes in the attempt to prevent further damage:

"Break the cycle," read the cards. "You inject but that doesn't mean you want others to do the same. Without meaning to, that's exactly what you could be doing by talking about injecting to non-injectors, injecting in front of non-injectors, [or] giving people their first hit. Think about whether you really want other people to end up doing what you're doing."

"Overdose is now the largest cause of death amongst injecting heroin uses," another informational booklet begins. "Many drug users overdose because they don't realize the risks they are taking when they inject heroin and use combinations of heroin and other drugs (including alcohol). Many deaths happen because people who see overdoses don't know what to do to help. This booklet aims to change that by giving you information on overdoes risks; methadone and overdose; myths and things that it is dangerous to do; calling an ambulance; and first aid for people who have overdosed."

The simple, non-preaching booklet then goes on to give information that could have possibly saved thousands of lives of heroin users whose sole idea of what to do in case of an OD was gained by watching "Pulp Fiction."

Heroin addiction, of course, is an extreme and atypical case of drug use. Despite the traditional stereotype of the junkie, most users only take drugs occasionally, and the vast majority do not become addicts. Some, mirable dictu, even find it an enjoyable and mind-expanding experience. However, that does not mean that recreational drugs are entirely safe. Harm-reduction seeks to educate potential users on what they're getting in to:

"Millions of people have taken MDMA without significant problems," reads a Crew 2000 informational card on Ecstasy. "This does not, however, make it completely safe, as several new studies have shown." The card then gives the results of several leading studies, as well as practical advice, such as the need to stay hydrated when dancing on Ecstasy, and the possibilities of getting slipped a dangerous substitute when one thinks one is buying X.

Finding straight talk such as this on the dangers and how to enjoy oneself safely and responsibly, or even finding realistic dialogue on drugs stripped of fire-and-brimstone absolutes, is quite difficult in an abolitionist climate. By providing frank information, Crew 2000 does a valuable service. The question is, is this a model for the direction that drug education should take in America?

The United States is, in many ways, a nation perpetually fighting the battle of Armageddon. Our government responds to every social problem-be it poverty, crime, illiteracy, or of course, drug use-by declaring a total, unremitting "war" on it. And, just as our battle plan is derived from the Book of Revelations, so, too is our attitude towards the casualties: Those who fall by the wayside of our continual march forward are seen as victims of their own moral failings, deserving of their fate in the pit of fire and brimstone. Worse, those who would sue for peace by advocating the reform of the current system, or who point out the hypocrisy of the hellfire-preachers, are seen as even more despicable than the sinners, and are reviled as apprentice Antichrists themselves who betray our war efforts by seducing the innocent into their own decadent lifestyles.

Thus far, particularly as the "war on drugs" is concerned, only two things have been served by the current rhetoric: the status quo, and the self-righteousness of the moralists. Yet, America is just one nation, albeit an influential one, in a very big world. We should recognize that other people in other places seek a more pragmatic approach to social ills, one that balances the realities of human nature with the greater good—and, in a losing war, one should consider all alternatives to utter defeat.