ABSTRACT
In 1987 the North West Regional Health Authority gave the Lifeline Project, a Manchester-based drug advice service, £5,000 to produce HIV prevention information for drug users. This chapter provides an overview of the production, distribution and evaluation of the resultant HIV prevention initiative that takes the form of an adult comic book for drug users called Smack in the Eye. The aim of the comic is to ‘promote’ safer drug use and safer sex. This approach is an alternative to health education ‘warnings of danger’ that seek to tell people what not to do without suggesting possible alternatives. In short, this is a practical initiative borne out of ‘harm reductionist’, as opposed to ‘abstentionist’, theory and philosophy. Whereas the central goal of abstentionist initiatives is to reduce drug use, the central goal of harm reduction initiatives is to reduce the harms (such as HIV/AIDS) that can arise from drug use. Smack in the Eye ‘nudges’ drug users towards safer drug using practices in the manner described by Stimson (1990) and targets drug users for information and advice on safer sex as suggested by Newcombe (1987, 1988) and Klee et al. (1990).
