Route of administration of illicit drugs among remand prison entrants.

G Niveau, C Ritter

Department of Community Health and Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland. Gerard.Niveau@hcuge.ch

European addiction research 2008

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To describe the self-reported routes of administration of illicit drugs among subjects entering a remand prison and the different drugs used by this population. A cross-sectional study, with a sample of 770 subjects, was conducted in Geneva (Switzerland). Participants were assessed with the semi-structured interview from the Council of Europe Pompidou Group multi-city study. 428 (55.6%) subjects admitted to having used illicit drugs during the 3 months prior to entry. Amongst these illicit drug users, 54.7% took several drugs. Injectable drugs (heroin, cocaine or illicit benzodiazepines) were taken by 75.7% of drug users but the majority (84.1%) declared that they had not injected drugs during the 3 months prior to entering prison. 68 subjects (8.8% of the total sample) declared that they had injected drugs during the 3 months prior to entering prison, either alone or in association with other methods. By extrapolation it is possible to suggest that about 200 intravenous drug users entered the remand prison in Geneva in 1 year. This confirms the need for prison health services to implement a policy of treatment, prevention and education adapted to patterns of drug use in the local context. (c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel