RISK BEHAVIORS AMONG INJECTING DRUG USERS IN NORTHERN IRELAND

Abstract

Compared to elsewhere in the United Kingdom, drug policy in Northern Ireland has for the most part failed to incorporate harm reduction strategies. In light of the conservative drug policies, the purpose of this study was to investigate the nature and extent of risk behaviors among injecting drug users (IDUs) in Northern Ireland. Data for this study were drawn from in-depth interviews with 39 IDUs in Northern Ireland. The findings suggest that most IDUs engage in extensive risk behaviors that pose risk for HIV, Hepatitis B and C, and other infectious disease. Moreover, these risk behaviors are linked to the scarcity of new needles and a general lack of knowledge about injection practices that reduce risk for infectious disease. These findings are discussed in the context of conservative drug policies.

• Injection drug users
• Risk behaviors
• Drug policy
• Needle sharing

Notes

¹Anti-drug vigilantes in Northern Ireland are individuals who are vehemently opposed to illicit drug use. Their actions have included violent assaults directed largely against alleged drug dealers. One group, calling itself, Direct Action Against Drugs (DAAD), has claimed responsibility for the deaths of several suspected drug dealers in Northern Ireland.

²“Chasing the dragon” represents one route of administering heroin. Although techniques can vary, generally the drug is placed on tin foil and heated from beneath the foil. The vapors are then inhaled by the user 25-26.

³The extent to which the interviewer's outsider status affected study participation is not known. However, some users appeared to be pleasantly surprised that an outsider showed interest in their lifestyles.

⁴For example, the preliminary interviews included several terms (e.g., “booting”) based on nomenclature associated with certain heroin user subcultures in the United States. Some of this nomenclature was unrecognizable among participants in the Northern Ireland study. The researcher learned the culturally-specific nomenclature as the study continued.

⁵Loyalists are persons—largely Protestant—who believe that Northern Ireland should remain within the United Kingdom, hence they are “loyal” to the British Crown. Further, loyalists tend to believe that violence is justified in the pursuit of maintaining the tie with Britain.

⁶Ballymena is located approximately 30 miles north of Belfast. Compared to IDUs in cities located outside Northern Ireland, these transactions are unusual in that urban users often travel to a smaller town in order to buy heroin.