ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the communication and power issues in negotiation of safe and safer sex and injecting practices among women intravenous drug users. Women who are at risk of HIV transmission do not just include those women who inject drugs, but to a larger extent, those who are sexual partners of Injecting Drug Users (IDUs). The subject of teaching women to negotiate condom use with male partners is difficult. Drug-using women and the sexual partners of IDUs may differ from other women in some crucial ways which influence education programs. Initial data from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) fimded Non-traditional Supports for Drug Using Women project show that a significant percentage of the women report that they have been sexually or physically abused. For women who have been victims of childhood sexual abuse, this traumatic past may shape the woman's style in choice of safe partners, adoption of safe sexual behaviors, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
