The development of services for drug misusers on Mersey

It is 10 yeats since the now famous statement by the Advisory Council on th e Misuse of Drugs that, The spread of HIV is a gl enter danger to individua l and public health than drug misuse. Accordingly, services which aim to mi nimise HIV risk behaviour by all means should take precedence hi developmen t plans' (ACMD, 1988), and the acceptance, at least for a time, of harm red uction as a legitimate goal for drug service provision. However, 2 years ea rlier. Mersey Regional Health Authority (MRHA), now part of North West Regi onal Health Authority, had already planned such an approach in response to the urgent need to prevent the spread of HIV amongst a drug-misusing popula tion estimated to be as high as 20,000 (DHMU, 1990). This paper looks at th e development of services on Mersey and at events since then.