ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a short history of medical and government responses to drug use, from the nineteenth century to the present day, and end by describing one needle-exchange and its clients. It also provides a discussion of the debates around, and implications of, the relationship between drug use and HIV infection. Drug Dependency Units have only ever seen a small fraction of drug users. Even restricting discussion to those who inject — rather than smoke, sniff or take drugs orally — and to those who primarily use heroin, it is undoubtedly the case that the majority of drug users have no contact with treatment agencies. Needle-sharing occurs with the drug users' full knowledge, as when two or more people share equipment on the same occasion without sterilization between use. In Liverpol, where the police have supported a needle-exchange scheme since its inception in October 1986, there is a policy of not confiscating needles and syringes.
