High street prices of syringes correlate with strict syringe possession laws

The current epidemic of injection drug use in the United States and abroad has precipitated an increase in transmission of infectious diseases, includ ing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and human T-lymphotrophic virus II (HTLV-II) in injection drug users (IDUs) who shar e syringes and other injection equipment. Sharing is often due to a lack of available sterile syringes, which is, in part, a result of laws and regula tions controlling the purchase and possession of syringes. These laws, in t urn, raise the price of questionably sterile black market syringes, inadver tently encouraging the reuse and sharing of syringes. To date, very little information has been gathered on the street price of syringes in different communities. We surveyed 42 needle exchange programs (NEPs) in the United S tates in July and August 1998 to determine the street prices of syringes. T he relationship among local laws regulating syringe possession, the enforce ment of those laws, and street syringe prices was examined. There was a str ong correlation between the presence of syringe possession laws and higher street syringe price ($2.87 vs. $1.14, p < .01). In areas with syringe poss ession laws, cost was significantly higher when laws were perceived to be e nforced strictly ($3.66 vs. $2.08, p < .01). Street prices for syringes are an easily quantifiable indirect measure of availability of sterile syringe s and may reflect syringe sharing and reuse.