High street prices of syringes correlate with strict syringe possession laws.

The current epidemic of injection drug use in the United States and abroad has precipitated an increase in transmission of infectious diseases, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and human T-lymphotrophic virus II (HTLV-II) in injection drug users (IDUs) who share syringes and other injection equipment. Sharing is often due to a lack of available sterile syringes, which is, in part, a result of laws and regulations controlling the purchase and possession of syringes. These laws, in turn, raise the price of questionably sterile black market syringes, inadvertently encouraging the reuse and sharing of syringes. To date, very little information has been gathered on the street price of syringes in different communities. We surveyed 42 needle exchange programs (NEPs) in the United States in July and August 1998 to determine the street prices of syringes. The relationship among local laws regulating syringe possession, the enforcement of those laws, and street syringe prices was examined. There was a strong correlation between the presence of syringe possession laws and higher street syringe price ($2.87 vs. $1.14, p< .01). In areas with syringe possession laws, cost was significantly higher when laws were perceived to be enforced strictly ($3.66 vs. $2.08, p<.01). Street prices for syringes are an easily quantifiable indirect measure of availability of sterile syringes and may reflect syringe sharing and reuse.

Needle exchange program participation by anabolic steroid injectors, United States 1998.

A significant number of people are currently misusing and abusing anabolic steroids. Hepatitis B, C, and HIV have all been documented to occur among anabolic steroid injectors (ASIs), most likely from the sharing of injection equipment. A survey was administered to 42 needle exchange programs (NEPs) from 17 states in the US to determine ASI participation. Sixty percent of the NEPs surveyed reported having at least some ASIs as participants, however, only 512 ASIs were identified among the 36,000 total monthly participants (1.4%). With the expanding number of NEPs in the US, it is possible to reach a higher proportion of ASIs with clean syringes and education, thus offering the means to prevent the spread of infection in this population.