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I don’t believe that harm reduction and 12-step recovery are the polar opposites they’ve been made out to be. But like many others, my introduction to harm reduction work was not without its awkward moments. As a first-year graduate social work student, I learned about all of the harm reduction tools provided to program participants on the first day of my field placement. I knew the agency offered clean syringes to folks using intravenous drugs in order to help prevent the spread of blood-borne diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C. It was a shock to me, however, to learn that we also provided cookers, cotton, saline, tourniquets, safe smoking kits, and more. The staff member giving me a tour of the office on my first day noticed the look of consternation on my face and graciously addressed the question he’d assuredly answered hundreds of times before from novices like myself— “isn’t this enabling?”