ArticleThe International journal on drug policy2018
Predicting pharmacy syringe sales to people who inject drugs: Policy, practice and perceptions.
Article in The International journal on drug policy, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Role of Pharmacies in the HIV Prevention and Care Continuums: A Systematic Review.AIDS and behavior · 2021Pooled it
- Sterile syringe availability in Georgia pharmacies remained rare, despite policy change permitting sales.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- HOME protocol for a national online survey of people who inject drugs.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Pharmacy-related syringe access barriers: an audit of Oregon community pharmacies.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- ASAP: A pharmacy-level intervention to increase nonprescription syringe sales to reduce bloodborne illnesses.Research in social & administrative pharmacy : RSAP · 2024Article
- Policies, adaptations, and ongoing challenges to naloxone, buprenorphine and nonprescription syringe access across four-states: Findings from an environmental scan and key informant interviews.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2024Article
- Come back when you're infected: pharmacy access to sterile syringes in an Arizona Secret Shopper Study, 2023.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- A survey of South Carolina pharmacists' readiness to prescribe human immunodeficiency virus pre-exposure prophylaxis.Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy : JACCP · 2023Article
- The PharmNet Harm Reduction Intervention for Community Pharmacies: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2022Article
- A qualitative study on pharmacy policies toward over-the-counter syringe sales in a rural epicenter of US drug-related epidemics.Harm reduction journal · 2022Article
- Participants of a mail delivery syringe services program are underserved by other safe sources for sterile injection supplies.The International journal on drug policy · 2022Article
- Rural community pharmacist willingness to dispense Suboxone® - A secret shopper investigation in South-Central Appalachia.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2021Article
- Community pharmacist engagement in HIV and HCV prevention: Current practices and potential for service uptake.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2021Article
- Assessing the relationship between syringe exchange, pharmacy, and street sources of accessing syringes and injection drug use behavior in a pooled nationally representative sample of people who inject drugs in the United States from 2002 to 2019.Harm reduction journal · 2021Article
- Syringe Services Programs' Role in Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S.: Why We Cannot Do It Without Them.American journal of preventive medicine · 2021Article
- Pharmacist attitudes and provision of harm reduction services in North Carolina: an exploratory study.Harm reduction journal · 2021Article
- Expanding Mail-Based Distribution of Drug-Related Harm Reduction Supplies Amid COVID-19 and Beyond.American journal of public health · 2021Article
- Consider the Source: Associations between Syringe Sources and Risky Injection Behaviors in California's Central Valley.Substance use & misuse · 2021Article
- Estimated effect of US state syringe sale policy on source of last-used injection equipment.The International journal on drug policy · 2020Article
- I could take the judgment if you could just provide the service: non-prescription syringe purchase experience at Arizona pharmacies, 2018.Harm reduction journal · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPharmacies have much to contribute to the health of people who inject drugs (PWID) and to community efforts in HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) prevention through syringe access. However, little is known about what predicts pharmacy syringe sales without a prescription.
objectiveTo identify factors predicting pharmacy syringes sales to PWID.
methodsA hybrid staggered online survey of 298 Indiana community pharmacists occurred from July-September 2016 measuring pharmacy policy, practice, and pharmacist perceptions about syringe sales to PWID. Separate bivariate logistical regressions were followed by multivariable logistic regression to predict pharmacy syringe sales and pharmacist comfort dispensing syringes to PWID.
resultsHalf (50.5%) of Indiana pharmacies sold syringes without a prescription to PWID. Pharmacy syringe sales was strongly associated with pharmacist supportive beliefs about syringe access by PWID and their comfort level selling syringes to PWID. Notably, pharmacies located in communities with high rates of opioid overdose mortality were 56% less likely to sell syringes without a prescription than those in communities with lower rates. Pharmacist comfort dispensing syringes was associated with being male, working at a pharmacy that sold syringes to PWID and one that stocked naloxone, having been asked about syringe access by medical providers, and agreement that PWID should be able to buy syringes without a prescription.
conclusionsAs communities with high rates of opioid overdose mortality were less likely to have pharmacies that dispensed syringes to PWID, a concerted effort with these communities and their pharmacies should be made to understand opportunities to increase syringe access. Future studies should explore nuances between theoretical support for syringe access by PWID without a prescription and actual dispensing behaviors. Addressing potential policy conflicts and offering continuing education on non-prescription syringe distribution for pharmacists may improve comfort distributing syringes to PWID, and therefore increase pharmacy syringe sales.
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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.