STD Prevention: Behavior Change

Abstinence - Abstinence from Drug Use?

From the standpoint of public health, it would be desirable that people abstain from smoking and injecting drugs. However, millions of smokers all over the world and countless thousands if intravenous drug users are addicted to nicotine or heroin and thus are incapable of the desired abstinence. It is true that some individuals do manage to stop smoking and give up other drugs on their own, but these exceptions only prove the rule: As a general prevention strategy, preaching abstinence to drug users is ineffective.

Facing this reality, many health experts therefore recommend that intravenous drug users be given free injection needles on demand as the best way to protect them against HIV infection. Clean needles in sufficient quantities can reduce the very dangerous “needle sharing”. Where these policies have been implemented, they have proved successful enough to justify their continuation.