AIDS and injecting drug use: very risky behaviour in a Perth sample of injecting drug users

Negotiated safety: what you don't know won't hurt you, or will it?

People inject drugs for a variety of reasons, and most do not want to harm themselves in the process. Drug injectors develop rituals for 'low risk' drug-taking based on experience, information received, hearsay and ignorance. The rituals developed are not always able to be used due to the illegal nature of the activity. Understanding of the beliefs of injecting drug-users (IDUs) and the events that influence behaviour is a potential pathway for ameliorating this often hazardous act. Needle-sharing is now not a common behaviour although, if there are no new needles at the time of injecting, IDUs will still share needles, usually with sexual partners and 'close friends'. Other injecting equipment, such as spoons, filters, water, etc., are usually shared. IDUs, like all other drug users, make many assumptions and it appears that IDUs rarely negotiate their drug use to make it 'safer'.