The Context of HIV Risk Among Drug Users and Their Sexual Partners

searched me and I had stashed the coke in my mouth and they didn’t
find it. They use that (the paraphernalia law) as an excuse. They
know you’ll forget the court date half the time. They know that even
if you make the court dates you might not be able to pay the fine;
then the next time they see you they know they are going to run an
ID check on you—you will have a warrant out and they—l take you
in for that. It’s just one big hassle (Koester, unpublished data).
Other contextual aspects of drug injectors’ lives combine with these legal
constraints to increase the likelihood that they will not have a syringe
when they are ready to inject. Laws criminalizing syringe possession are
particularly troublesome for street-based injectors who, because of their
impoverished lifestyle, often are visible and thus vulnerable to arrest.
Street-based injectors may have only temporary living arrangements and
no access to transportation. In many instances, they may not have a place
of their own to go and consume drugs. In addition, they must often
expose themselves to view because the specific hustles they perform
demand it.
Poor injectors frequently pool their limited cash to purchase drugs. Even
a quarter gram of cocaine at $20, the smallest quantity sold, may be
beyond their individual means, and some heroin dealers will not sell any
less than a $60 “piece.” To overcome this condition of the market,
injectors form temporary “business” arrangements with other injectors; to
do so, they go to known copping sites to meet. It is at known copping
sites where police presence is most constant; as a result, injectors seldom
carry a syringe when going to buy drugs. Injectors who support their drug
use by copping drugs for others, linking buyers with dealers, also are
forced to be somewhat visible, and they too refrain from carrying
syringes (Koester 1994).
Paraphernalia laws are not the only impediment to syringe access.
Although syringes are legal to purchase without a prescription in
Colorado, this does not necessarily ensure that they can easily be obtained
by IDUs. Drug stores’ policies, the attitudes of individual pharmacists,
the price a pharmacy charges for syringes, and the proximity of a store to
areas where injectors buy and use drugs are important determinants of
accessibility. The author found that some pharmacists refused to sell
syringes to individuals they thought were drug injectors, while others
required the potential buyer to show proof that he or she was a diabetic.
Pharmacies that readily sell to injectors often are located several blocks
away from drug copping scenes, or they charge exorbitant prices for
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