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Needle sharing is the practice of intravenous drug-users by which a needle or syringe is shared by multiple individuals to administer intravenous drugs such as heroin, steroids, and hormones. [1] This is a primary vector for blood-borne diseases which can be transmitted through blood (blood-borne pathogens). [ 2 ]
Although there appears widespread awareness of using sterile needles among IDU (88% reported doing so in the last injection [4]) sharing needles is common among those who have already contracted HIV/AIDS. In a survey of 20 provinces in Vietnam, 35% of IDU living with HIV shared needles and syringes. [9]
Other critics argue that countries like Vietnam, where low dead space needles are distributed and available, have the highest rates of HIV among people who inject drugs. However, proponents claim that low dead space syringes are still difficult to get and many people who use low dead space syringes still use high dead space syringes and thus ...
A needle and syringe programme (NSP), also known as needle exchange program (NEP), is a social service that allows injection drug users (IDUs) to obtain clean and unused hypodermic needles and associated paraphernalia at little or no cost.
Needle-exchange programmes reduce the likelihood of people who use heroin and other substances sharing the syringes and using them more than once. Syringe-sharing often leads to the spread of infections such as HIV or hepatitis C, which can easily spread from person to person through the reuse of syringes contaminated with infected blood.
Low-threshold programs offering needle exchange have faced much opposition on political and moral grounds. [21] Concerns are often expressed that NSPs may encourage drug use, or may actually increase the number of dirty needles in the community. [22] Another fear is that NSPs may draw drug activity into the communities in which they operate. [23]
As a result of preparatory research on how to make the pamphlet understandable to a wide audience, the authors avoided labels for people like "gay" or "drug addicts," and instead described behaviors like anal sex or needle sharing. This type of explicit description, pioneered by Understanding AIDS, would later become standard in sex education.
In the United States, Under federal law the term drug paraphernalia means “any equipment, product or material of any kind which is primarily intended or designed for use in manufacturing, compounding, converting, concealing, producing, processing, preparing, injecting, ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing into the human body a controlled substance.” [1]