One of the exercises I do when I’m delivering safer injecting training looks at the most common injecting sites and their associated risks. People are usually quite good at putting the different sites in some kind of order of risk, but when it comes to the feet they often underestimate the dangers.

International overdose awareness day was two weeks ago, but I’m still thinking though all the thoughts it’s brought up for me. Every year thousands of people die leaving behind family and friends. But what support do drug services give the people left behind?

If you work in drug services the chances are there’s an A4 poster up somewhere telling you what do do if you, as a worker, are accidentally spiked with a used needle. You may even have read it once or twice, but now its going brown at the edges and no one really notices it. But how often do we talk about this with people who inject, after all they’re at a far greater risk of getting spiked than we are.

Over the years the advice I’ve given to injectors has developed and changed. Sometimes this is because of new research, and sometimes it’s just because I realise that there is better advice I could be giving. This article explains why I no longer tell steroid injectors that the glute is the best place to inject.

In June 2010 I wrote an article for Injecting Advice concerning fluorescent blue lights (and related harm) in public toilets. That previous article coincided with the publication of an academic paper in the journal Health and Place and both summarised research (from the city of Plymouth, UK) that considered the injecting practices of drug users who had previously accessed toilets lit with blue lights.

The front page of Silk Road looks a lot like an Amazon or an Ebay. Goods and services for sale are categorised. Sellers receive ratings from buyers and comments about the quality of their products, how fast they ship, and the level of professionalism and discreteness of the transaction. Trust in sellers is built on reputation.

Premier Baillieu said in parliament today, ‘I don’t want to be in the business of sending messages to kids … that it’s okay to dabble in drugs’. Baillieu is opposed to SIF ‘based on observation and a detailed look at all of these issues’. Now, I’m not sure what he’s had a detailed look at but it isn’t the evidence.

One of the questions I’m often asked when delivering training to drugs workers is “What are all the different needles for, and which is the best one to use”. Although in a perfect world there would be a clear answer this is rarely the case as each person and each injecting site is unique, the […]

Safe injecting practices and other protective factors that helped people to avoid HCV are not necessarily motivated by BBV avoidance, but by more pragmatic concerns such as avoiding track marks (for those early in their injecting careers ), maintaining venous access and facilitating a pleasurable injecting experience.

Recently I’ve been reading and listening to some interesting talks on the advice that we give alongside syringe delivery. I think that in many Needle Programmes (NSP) workers are overly focused on the equipment an injector chooses to use rather than on the process of injecting. Of course the equipment used is very important, syringe […]