Vulnerability and involvement in drug use and ... - Sex Work Europe

7 Summary of conclusions and recommendations
Conclusions on findings have been made throughout this re p o rt, as well as
recommendations in line with the Home Office remit to ‘build a fair, just and tolerant
society’. The study’s conclusions and recommendations are presented again in this final
section for ease of reference.
Links between problematic drug use and sex work – recommendations for harm reduction
● The analyses support the notion that the outdoor and independent drift sex work
sectors are so characterised by experience of vulnerability that they may serve as
a site for linking and reinforcing these vulnerabilities.
● Above all else, freedom from problematic drug use is key to freedom fro m
multiplying vulnerabilities.
● Non-vulnerable sex workers without current drug problems saw exiting sex work
and/or drug use as readily achievable, but exiting was not a goal chosen by all.
It is important to remember that the nature of problematic drug use (drugs used,
frequency and circumstances of use) is key to ease of exiting from that habit.
● This study counsels policy makers and service providers to interpret continuation
with sex work as freely undertaken where it is free from pressures associated with
vulnerability and abuse.
● This study recommends harm reduction services to guide sex workers toward s
c reating clear distinctions between their sex work and their private sex lives.
Two ways service workers might advise sex workers to do this would be to
encourage them:
– not to use drugs with clients or do sex work under the influence of drugs; and
– to keep some aspect of sex exclusive for private enjoyment.
Safer sex could be encouraged as an absolute minimum mark of pro f e s s i o n a l
conduct. Services could encourage sex workers to reserve as private, acts that the
sex worker considers especially intimate and those that are most risky in terms of
sexually transmitted infections.
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