ABSTRACT
Between September 1999 and March 2000, 31,815 drug users in England presented for treatment, and 40% of them reported having injected drugs in the previous four weeks (Department of Health 2000). This obviously only repesents a proportion of the total number of people who are misusing one or more of a number of illicit drugs, either on a regular basis or in a more ‘recreational’ manner, for example occasionally at weekends. Whilst considering illicit drug use then, it is important to remember that not all drug users inject drugs and not all injectors suffer from the health-related consequences of injecting which are described in this chapter.
