| Abstract: | Correspondence to Professor J. G. Barber, School of Social Work, Newnham Drive, Newnham, P.O. Box 1214, Launceston, Tesmania 7250, Australia. Summary As part of a larger interview schedule conducted with 1245 injectingdrug users in Sydney, Australia, respondents were asked aboutthe degree to which their drug use is conducted within a groupcontext. They were also asked about the size of their user groupsand the extent of needle-sharing that occurs in the groups.Results revealed that injecting drug use was a social behaviourapproximately half of the time for the overall sample, but thatthere were statistically significant differences according tothe age, gender, and drug experience of the user. The studyalso found an alarming amount of needle-sharing among the sampleoverall. Females, younger users, and those less experiencedin injecting drug use were more inclined to inject in groups,while needle-sharing was more common among older and more experiencedusers. |
