Why do people share needles?
Reasons for sharing injecting equipment include scarcity or cost (of needles and syringes), lack of information and awareness about the risks associated with sharing, cultural practices, and legal or policing barriers to availability or use of equipment. Sharing of injecting equipment is embedded within the social context in which drug use takes place. For example, the sharing of contaminated injecting equipment may arise because IDUs fear that, while carrying needles and syringes, they will be stopped by police who will use possession of drug paraphernalia as evidence of a drug-related crime. Instead of purchasing or obtaining a new needle and syringe, users prefer to use the specific needle and syringe in use where the drugs are purchased or consumed and be able to leave the scene without carrying any equipment on their person. These situations give rise to shooting galleries : locations where the needles and syringes provided by a dealer are used in rapid succession, without adequat
