GAT launches Practical Guide to Harm Reduction Strategies for New Psychoactive Substances

GAT – Grupo de Ativistas em Tratamentos (Activist Group on Treatment) announces the launch of the “Practical Guide to Harm Reduction Strategies for New Psychoactive Substances,” developed as part of the NextGen Harm Reduction project. This guide was created to support professionals, peers, and outreach teams working with people who use drugs, in a context where new substances and increasingly diverse patterns of consumption are emerging.

The guide presents a practical and applied approach, bringing together 17 modules with strategies and recommendations that can be useful in different intervention contexts—from fixed services and mobile units to recreational contexts (such as festivals and nightlife) and online responses. The aim is to strengthen the response capacity of teams in the field, with clear guidelines, examples, and useful references for further reading.

Among the topics covered are essential tools and responses such as drug checking, naloxone and overdose prevention programs, opioid substitution treatment, needle exchange, as well as integrated approaches that link health, psychosocial support, and harm reduction. The guide also includes recommendations for interventions in chemsex, recreational settings, and online work, as well as emphasizing the importance of peer involvement, stigma reduction, ongoing training, coordination between services, and sustainability of responses.

What you will find in the guide: 17 modules, from theory to practice

The Practical Guide to Harm Reduction Strategies for New Psychoactive Substances is organized into 17 modules with guidance and tips for frontline teams. Here are some highlights:

1. Essential interventions and services
   • Drug checking: to reduce the risk associated with unknown or adulterated substances and generate alerts;
   • Opioid substitution treatment (OST) and naloxone programs for overdose prevention and response;
   • Needle exchange programs and safer consumption practices, including infection prevention (HIV, viral hepatitis, and other STIs);
   • Supervised consumption rooms and integrated services (health, social, and harm reduction);
2. Responses tailored to specific contexts
   1. Chemsex: strategies informed by sexual health, mental health, and risk reduction in long sessions and poly-use;
   2. Recreational contexts (festivals/nightlife): on-site presence, materials, brief counseling, and linkage to care;
   3. Online services: up-to-date information, individual support, confidentiality, and local referral;
3. Quality, rights, and sustainability
   1. Peer involvement, information campaigns, training and capacity building, collaboration between services;
   2. Decriminalization and advocacy, funding and sustainability, addressing stigma, and a personalized, person-centered approach.

Throughout the modules, the guide includes European examples and references to relevant resources and organizations for further study and local adaptation.

NextGen Harm Reduction: Tackling the Challenge of Emerging Psychoactive Drugs is a project co-funded by the European Union (Erasmus+), running from October 2024 to September 2026, with the aim of strengthening innovative and evidence-based responses to the challenges posed by New Psychoactive Substances (NPS). The consortium includes ARAS (Romania, coordination), Re Generation (Serbia), HOPS (North Macedonia), and GAT (Portugal).