The NIDA-funded Syringe Access, Use, and Discard (SAUD) research project has been conducting interviews and collecting ethnographic field observations regarding contextual factors that increase risk of contracting HIV among injection drug users (IDUs) in Hartford, New Haven, and Springfield, MA. The presentation reports on the results of the first 18 months of data collection that include in-depth interviews with over 150 IDUs in each city, day visits (5-hour participant observations), diaries, social mapping, field notes, and bio-assays of syringes. This report focuses on the effects of divergent public policies with respect to access to clean needles in MA and CT. In CT, new syringes are legally available in pharmacies, in needle exchange programs, and from local health departments; in Springfield, the purchase and possession of syringes by IDUs is illegal. Key findings highlight the cost differential of syringes in these two bordering states, the average number of times each syringe is used, a breakdown of the sources of syringes in each state, the rate at which used syringes are sold on the street, rates of sharing syringes, typical patterns of disposal of used syringes, differential rates of arrest and harassment for possession of equipment, differential strategies for coping with the potential for arrest & police harassment, the range of responses to crisis situations (i.e., syringe malfunction), and the results of bio-assays of syringes purchased on the streets.
Learning Objectives: As a result of this presentation, the participants will be able to: 1. articulate the health implications of public policy with respect to syringe access and HIV
Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Needle Exchange
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.