Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Injecting other drug users

Brighton has one of the biggest drug problems of any UK city and it is thought that around 2% of people between the ages of 15 and 44 inject drugs. The coroner of Brighton has raised concerns that the practice of drug users injecting other people might raise the risk of death through overdose so a team of researchers from the NHS in Brighton, the University of Sussex and St George's Medical School in London looked into this issue. They found that 26% of injecting drug users either received injections from other people or gave them to others. The most common reason for doing this was problems with injecting technique and sharing injecting equipment was common. The practice most commonly occured between friends and partners. Injecting other people was seen as no different to, or less safe than, injecting oneself.

Cherry, Scott ... [et al] - Injecting other users: a pilot study in an area of high prevalence of drug-related deaths Journal of Substance Use October 2009, 14(5), 289-294

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