As this is the NEW website for the AIDS Committee of Windsor, AIDS Support Chatham-Kent, and the Drouillard Road Clinic, everything is new and in the process of being updated. If by chance there is anything wrong with the information, feel free to contact us.

Accepts, for better and for worse, that illicit drug use is part of our world and chooses to work to minimize its harmful effects rather than simply ignore, condemn them or require complete abstinence.

Understands drug use as something that is complex that encompasses a continuum of behaviors from severe abuse to total abstinence, and acknowledges that some ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others.

Establishes quality of individual and community life and well-being--not necessarily cessation of all drug use--as the criteria for successful interventions and policies.

Calls for the non-judgmental, non-coercive provision of services and resources to people who use drugs to assist them in reducing harm to themselves and to others.

Affirms drugs users themselves as the primary agents of reducing the harms of their drug use, and seeks to empower users to share information and support each other in strategies which meet their actual conditions of use.

Recognizes that the realities of poverty, class, racism, social isolation, past trauma, sex-based discrimination and other social inequalities affect both people's vulnerability to and capacity for effectively dealing with drug-related harm.

Does not attempt to minimize or ignore the real and tragic harm and danger associated with illicit drug use.