NCJ Number
131875
Journal
Criminal Justice Policy Review Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Dated: (1989) Pages: 391-406
Date Published
1989
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Interviews were conducted with 48 long-term intravenous users of heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines in the San Francisco Bay area to obtain descriptive data on needle sharing and shooting gallery utilization.
Abstract
Of the 38 respondents (79.2 percent) who shared injection equipment in the previous week, the number of different persons with whom they had shared ranged from 1 to 7. Shooting galleries had been used by the majority of respondents and continued to be used even in this era of AIDS. Twenty-five respondents indicated that they had shared syringes in a shooting gallery at least once in the previous month, and 18 reported having done so 6 or more times in the past month. Their reasons for sharing syringes and using shooting galleries were primarily practical and include the need to avoid carrying illicit injection equipment for fear of arrest. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for both criminal justice and public health policy. 6 tables and 28 references (Author abstract modified)