Imprisonment, injecting drug use, and bloodborne viruses

Syringe exchange, injecting and intranasal drug use.

OBJECTIVE To assess trends in injecting and non-injecting drug use after implementation of large-scale syringe exchange in New York City. The belief that implementation of syringe exchange will lead to increased drug injecting has been a persistent argument against syringe exchange. METHODS Administrative data on route of administration for primary drug of abuse among patients entering the Be...

Prevalence of problem drug use and injecting drug use in Luxembourg: a longitudinal and methodological perspective.

BACKGROUND To estimate the prevalence of problem drug use (PDU) and injecting drug use (IDU) in Luxembourg and analyze trends between 1997 and 2009. To assess the feasibility of prevalence estimations based on drug use surveillance systems. METHODS Serial multi-method PDU/IDU prevalence estimations based upon capture-recapture, Poisson regression, multiplier and back-calculation methods. Comp...

Drug Policy, Criminal Justice and Mass Imprisonment

Booting and Flushing: Needle Rituals and Risk for Bloodborne Viruses

Booting” and “flushing” are terms used to describe an injecting behaviour in which the plunger is pulled back and the fluid (mostly blood and perhaps blood only) is re-injected. The behaviour differs from “registering,” which occurs before the drug is injected. Booting/flushing can produce subcutaneous and venous damage, and increases the risk for the spread of blood-borne viruses when used equ...

HIV and injecting drug use: a global call for action.

The 2001 UNGASS Declaration of Commitment and the 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS established time-bound targets to be met and reported on by countries worldwide. The commitments aimed to address the needs of people who inject drugs, their families and the communities in which they live through an “urgent, coordinated and sustained response.” 4 5 These commitments remain unfulfilled. Peo...