Principle 1:
Accepting that, for better or worse, licit and illicit drug use is a part of our world and choosing to work to minimize its harmful effects rather than simply ignoring or condemning it.
Principle 2:
Understanding drug use as a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that encompasses a continuum of behaviors from severe use to total abstinence, and acknowledging that some ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others.
Principle 3:
Establishing quality of individual and community life and well-being as the criteria for successful interventions and policies, not necessarily cessation of all drug use.
Principle 4:
Calls for non-judgemental, non-coercive provision of services and resources to people who use drugs and the communities in which they live in order to assist them in reducing attendant harm.
Principle 5:
Ensuring that people who use drugs and those with a history of drug use routinely have a real voice in the creation of policies and programs designed to serve them.
Principle 6:
Affirming to people who use drugs themselves as the primary agents of reducing the harms of their drug use and seeks to empower them to share information and support each other in strategies which meet their actual conditions of use.
Principle 7:
Recognizing 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.
Principle 8:
Does not attempt to minimize or ignore the real, tragic harm and danger that can be associated with illicit drug use.