Pharmacy Needle and Syringe Survey, Western Australia 2009

Abstract

The demographic and drug-using profiles of survey respondents who purchased sterile injecting equipment from pharmacies in Western Australia differ in important ways from existing data about injecting drug users in Western Australia that were collected from needle and syringe exchange programs (NSEPs). Clients of pharmacies appear to be younger (mean 32.4 years), with shorter injecting histories (mean 12 years) and report injecting less frequently (38.4% reported having injected daily or more frequently) and most commonly inject meth/amphetamine (58.5%).