Dr. Anthony Salandy is a human development professional with over 30 years of international and domestic experience in the Legislative and Executive branches of the U.S. Government, Academe, Philanthropy, and Non-Profit sectors. Currently, he is the Chief Program and Business Strategy Officer at National Harm Reduction Coalition (NHRC).

Tobacco harm reduction (THR) strategies and approaches for People Who Use Drugs (PWUD) are critical yet often overlooked in community-based harm reduction settings (e.g., Syringe Service Programs SSPs, Overdose Prevention Sites - OPS, Drug Consumption Rooms – DCR; Outpatient Treatment Programs - OTP). For example, less than 5% of SSPs in the U.S. incorporate THR strategies in their services, even though incorporating practical THR strategies play a vital role in improving health outcomes for people who use drugs (PWUD) - a population with disproportionately high smoking rates. Practical strategies and approaches that SSP, OPS, DCR, and OTP can implement to support THR uptake among PWUD will be explored.

Key practical strategies and approaches include: 1) Integrating tobacco interventions into existing harm reduction and treatment services, such as offering nicotine replacement therapy alongside syringe distribution, 2) Training staff on motivational interviewing techniques to have non-judgmental conversations about tobacco use, 3) Providing education on lower-risk nicotine products like e-cigarettes as an alternative to smoking, 4) Developing training and train-the-trainer programs with THR champions and peer support workers to work with PWUD, 5) Offering low-barrier access to lower risk nicotine products.

In addition, an examination of case studies highlighting successful programs that have integrated THR in their traditional harm reduction services will be presented – along with common barriers to implementation and ways to overcome them will be offered. By adopting these evidence-based THR strategies, community-based harm reduction programs, OPS, DCR, and OTP can help reduce smoking-related health disparities and improve quality of life for PWUD. Recommendations for future directions on integrating THR with PWUD will be discussed.