Sterile Needles 7. Care, Treatment, and Support 9. A Comprehensive Strategy 10. A Moral and Legal Obligation to Act 13. A number of studies have provided evidence of the extent of injection and other drug use in prisons.
Many prisoners crave some form of drugs.
Many of them are in prison in the first place because of offences related to drugs. Injection drug use is also prevalent, and the scarcity of needles often leads to needle sharing. Members of the Expert Committee on AIDS and Prisons were told by inmates that injection drug use and needle sharing are frequent and that sometimes 15 to 20 people will use one needle. A study on HIV transmission among injection drug users in Toronto found that over 80 percent had been in prison since beginning to inject drugs, with 25 percent sharing injecting equipment while in custody. Injection drug use was particularly high in the Pacific Region, with 23 percent of inmates reporting injection drug use.