ArticleHarm reduction journal2008
Distributing foil from needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) to promote transitions from heroin injecting to chasing: an evaluation.
Article in Harm reduction journal, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- The utilization and delivery of safer smoking practices and services: a narrative synthesis of the literature.Harm reduction journal · 2023Pooled it
- Integration of safer smoking equipment in U.S. syringe services programs: Qualitative insights from program staff.The International journal on drug policy · 2026Article
- Association of safer smoking supply distribution with participant encounters and naloxone distribution from syringe services programs: Findings from the National Survey of Syringe Services Programs in the United States.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Article
- Decrease in injection and rise in smoking and snorting of heroin and synthetic opioids, 2000-2021.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2024Article
- Rats chasing the dragon: A new heroin inhalation method.Journal of neuroscience methods · 2024Article
- Safe inhalation pipe provision (SIPP): protocol for a mixed-method evaluation of an intervention to improve health outcomes and service engagement among people who use crack cocaine in England.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- High levels of interest in access to free safer smoking equipment to reduce injection frequency among people who inject drugs in Seattle, Washington.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2023Article
- Heroin pipe distribution to reduce high-risk drug consumption behaviors among people who use heroin: a pilot quasi-experimental study.Harm reduction journal · 2022Article
- Transition from injecting opioids to smoking fentanyl in San Francisco, California.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2021Observational
- Drug fatalities and treatment fatalism: Complicating the ageing cohort theory.Sociology of health & illness · 2021Article
- Hoots and harm reduction: a qualitative study identifying gaps in overdose prevention among women who smoke drugs.Harm reduction journal · 2021Article
- Exploring perspectives on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in people who smoke heroin: a qualitative study.BJGP open · 2020Article
- Screening Heroin Smokers Attending Community Drug Clinics for Change in Lung Function: A Cohort Study.Chest · 2020Article
- Smoking heroin with cannabis versus injecting heroin: unexpected impact on treatment outcomes.Harm reduction journal · 2019Article
- Factors Associated with Frequency of Recent Initiation of Others into Injection Drug Use Among People Who Inject Drugs in Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA, USA, 2016-17.Substance use & misuse · 2019Article
- Hepatitis C virus prevalence and estimated incidence among new injectors during the opioid epidemic in New York City, 2000-2017: Protective effects of non-injecting drug use.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2018Article
- Differences in time to injection onset by drug in California: Implications for the emerging heroin epidemic.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2018Article
- A scoping review of home-produced heroin and amphetamine-type stimulant substitutes: implications for prevention, treatment, and policy.Harm reduction journal · 2016Article
- Public opinions about supervised smoking facilities for crack cocaine and other stimulants.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2016Article
- SMOKE IT! Promoting a change of opiate consumption pattern - from injecting to inhaling.Harm reduction journal · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe report presents evaluation results from an intervention using specially produced foil packs to promote a transition from heroin injecting to inhalation (chasing) with injecting drug users (IDUs) attending four needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) in south west England.
methodsService activity/uptake measures, brief structured interviews.
resultsOut of 320 attenders, 54% took the foil packs when they became available. Over the period of the evaluation, NSP transactions increased by 32.5% from 1,672 to 2,216. Additionally, 32 new clients (non-injecting heroin users) started attending the service to obtain the foil packs. This group would not otherwise have been in contact with the treatment service. More detailed data from one site are reported for 48 recent injectors who took foil within the NSP where the piloting first commenced. Prior to the introduction of the foil packs, 46% of this sub-group reported chasing heroin in the previous four weeks. At follow up, 85% reported using the foil to chase heroin on occasions when they would otherwise have injected. Among the people who took it, client satisfaction with the quality and size of the foil packs was good and respondents viewed its availability as a valuable extension to the NSP's services.
conclusionThese findings suggest that distributing foil packs can be a useful means of engaging NSP attenders in discussions about ways of reducing injecting risks and can reduce injecting in settings where there is a pre-existing culture of heroin chasing. Further research should see whether these findings can be reproduced in other cultural contexts and evaluate whether the observed behavioural changes are sustained and lead to reductions in harm including blood-borne infections and overdose.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.