I saw someone mention AIDS in this thread as though shooting up once would guarantee it.
I mentioned it, and I said no such thing.
Of course shooting up once won't guaranteed that you get HIV, HCV, etc.
But shooting up "once" presents an EXTREMELY high likelihood of doing it more than once.
Doing it more than once presents a progressively higher likelihood of becoming addicted, then contracting any number of infectious diseases, including hepatitis B and C.
My point wasn't that you'll necessarily get AIDS if you shoot heroin or even that the absolute risk is super-high, just that the relative RISK of your doing so goes up by several orders of magnitude.
Short of having unprotected receptive anal sex, the second "best" way to get AIDS is to be an intravenous drug abuser.
The fact is that many people shoot heroin and still lead productive lives
Of course there are people like that.
But if you look at heroin users as a group, they are not nearly so productive or healthy as non users. There is a large gap there in terms of income, longevity, etc.
There are a lot more heroin addicts living under the proverbial bridge then there are heroin addicts who are CEOs of major corporations.
You can buy sterile syringes OTC in 49 of 50 states.
I think sterile syringes are available anywhere; its the NEEDLES that are restricted.
Whether this "should" be true is another thing, and someone else can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe there there are still plenty of jurisdictions where it requires a medical prescription to legally obtain them. In some places they're available, but only if you're part of a sanctioned needle exchange program, and not every addict is willing to participate in such a program.
There is no reason to not use a fresh set of works every time. In fact IV drug users have some of the lowest rates of HIV infection now because they know better.
On the second part of this statement, if you're saying HIV infection is less prevalent amongst IV drug users now, than say 10 years ago, that's true.
But even today, roughly 10% of new HIV infections are related to IV drug abuse, and as a cohort, IV drug users have far higher absolute HIV carriage rates than the general population.
On the first part, that's like saying since condoms or other birth control options are available at any drug store for only a few bucks, there is no reason for unwanted pregnancy.
My response is that as a group, IV drug users aren't exactly the most health-conscious or rigorous sorts, and "sometimes" they don't do what they "should" do.
You'd think in the 21st century, sharing of needles wouldn't happen anymore, yet it still does. J
ust because in theory shooting heroin "should" be perfectly safe, in practice addicts still share needles, use dirty ones, and engage in all sort of other risky behavior. Part of this, of course, isn't because of the heroin, per se. . .people who are willing to shoot heroin are also willing to engage in all sort of other risky behaviors irrespective of heroin use.