5. Injecting and sharing behaviour

This section combines data on the three key indicators related to injecting drug use and sharing of injecting equipment. These are :

• the percentage of drug misusers recorded by the Scottish Drug Misuse Database (SDMD) who had injected in the previous month ;
• the percentage of drug misusers recorded by the SDMD who had injected in the previous month who reported sharing equipment in the previous month ;
• and the percentage of drug misusers recorded by the SDMD who reported that they had injected in the past, but not in the previous month.

Indicators

Of new clients reported to the Scottish Drug Misuse Database during 1998/99, 42% reported that they had injected in the previous month. This represents an increase of 7% on the figure for 1996/97, Figure 3.4.

In 1998/99, of those who had injected in the previous month, 32% (almost one in three) reported sharing equipment in the previous month. This compares with 28% in the previous two years, Figure 3.4.

At the same time, the proportion of drug misusers reported to the SDMD who reported injecting in the past, but not in the previous month, remained at 18%, Figure 3.4.

Figure 3.4 : Individuals recorded by the SDMD - % injecting and sharing equipment