ABSTRACT
Residence appears to exert influence over choices of venues for injection among intravenous drug users (IDUs) in Valencia, Spain. While living in their parents' homes, young IDUs may resort to high-risk venues for injection, particularly chutaderos in which used needles and syringes are often reused. Residence patterns of young IDUs in Spain may be highly similar to residence of IDUs in Italy and Puerto Rico, which also have AIDS epidemics dominated by IDUs rather than men who have sex with men. Intervention in these places needs to take contextual factors of residence into account for effective prevention of HIV infection.
Subject(s)
Residence Characteristics , Substance Abuse, Intravenous/epidemiology , Adult , Catchment Area, Health , Educational Status , Female , HIV Seropositivity/complications , HIV Seropositivity/epidemiology , Humans , Male , Marital Status , Needle Sharing/statistics & numerical data , Retrospective Studies , Risk-Taking , Self Disclosure , Socioeconomic Factors , Spain/epidemiology , Substance Abuse, Intravenous/complicationsABSTRACT
Preliminary observations and responses to interviews in Valencia, Spain reveal that injecting drug users (IDUs) dissolve heroin before injection with two or three drops of lemon juice. Solution in lemon juice makes heating of heroin in water unnecessary. This pattern apparently developed spontaneously in Spain, but is almost unknown elsewhere in the world. Its implications for IDUs' health remain speculative, but use of lemon juice to dissolve heroin for injection deserves further scientific study.
