Needle Drug Use Found In Prisons

Dr. Evan Wood finds significant injection drug use rates of incarcerated individuals. According to the Montreal Gazette April 7, 2008 article,("Prison Needle Use Alarms Analysts") 'Up to 15 per cent of incarcerated drug users report injecting heroin and cocaine while behind bars, according to one of two new studies that say Canadian prisons are contributing to the spread of the virus that causes AIDS. The findings are so worrisome the researchers at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, who conducted the studies, have renewed calls for in-prison needle exchanges to reduce the risk of dirty syringes spreading HIV and Hepatitis C infections, which are common among inmates."

The article states, "The first, in this week's advance online edition of the Journal of Public Health published by Oxford University, followed 1,247 intravenous drug users, half of whom spent time in jails at some point during the six-year study. Almost 15 per cent of those incarcerated reported injecting heroin or cocaine in prison, most of them with used syringes. The second study, published in the Drug and Alcohol Review this week, followed another group - 902 injection drug users at Insite, Vancouver's controversial supervised injection facility. Approximately one-third reported spending time behind bars at each six-month follow-up in the two-year-long study and five per cent reported injecting drugs while incarcerated."