Alcohol Harm Reduction for College Students

AHRCS is a peer-led informational and support group for college-age people who drink alcohol.

AHRCS accepts the reality that college students under the age of 21 sometimes choose to drink alcohol and even sometimes choose to get drunk.

AHRCS is devoted to saving the lives of students by providing information about and support for safe drinking practices.

AHRCS does not promote alcohol intoxication and neither do we condemn it--AHRCS recognizes that alcohol intoxication is a reality among college-age individuals and seeks to lessen risks associated with this intoxication.

AHRCS recognizes that promoting "just say no" programs does not work, in fact such programs backfire and lead to unsafe and dangerous drinking.

AHRCS believes that giving people the straight facts about alcohol--both good and bad--is the best way to empower people to make good decisions about drinking.

AHRCS maintains an online harm reduction discussion group for people who want to practice safe drinking and for people who wish to promote safe drinking on their campus.

AHRCS also highly recommends the following harm reduction sites for those seeking more harm reduction information:

HAMS - Harm Reduction for Alcohol
The Safety First Project

Harm reduction is a set of pragmatic and humanistic strategies aimed at reducing the individual and social harms associated with various high risk behaviors ranging from drinking alcohol to drug use to gambling to sexual behaviors. A hallmark of harm reduction is that it relies on methodologies that safeguard the dignity, humanity and human rights of people who engage in high risk behaviors.

Harm reduction recognizes that the vast majority of individuals who engage in high risk behaviors have no intention of causing harm to themselves or others; individuals engage in these behaviors because there is a payoff to them.

Harm reduction does not seek to change people in ways which they do not choose for themselves, rather, harm reduction meets people "where they are at" with their behaviors and supports "every positive change".

Harm reduction seeks to supply individuals with the means to reduce harms associated with their behaviors by giving them the tools and information needed to do so.

Harm reduction recognizes that it can be more effective for many people to make small changes than for a few people to make large changes.