ArticleHarm reduction journal2019
I could take the judgment if you could just provide the service: non-prescription syringe purchase experience at Arizona pharmacies, 2018.
Article in Harm reduction journal, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Correlates of Syringe Acquisition at Syringe Services Program and Pharmacies among Persons Who Inject Drugs: National HIV Behavioral Surveillance, United States, 2022.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2026Article
- Professionalism, professional identity and community pharmacy culture: The context of substance dependency through the lens of student and early career pharmacists.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- HOME protocol for a national online survey of people who inject drugs.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- The impact of restricted community accessibility on needle and syringe sharing among drug users in Baise city: based on the event study method.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Over-the-Counter Naloxone and Nonprescription Syringe Availability in Community Pharmacies.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Drug-related stigma among people who inject drugs - development and validation of the drug use stigma scale (DUSS).PloS one · 2025Article
- ASAP: A pharmacy-level intervention to increase nonprescription syringe sales to reduce bloodborne illnesses.Research in social & administrative pharmacy : RSAP · 2024Article
- Mobile treatment for opioid use disorder: Implementation of community-based, same-day medication access interventions.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2024Article
- Come back when you're infected: pharmacy access to sterile syringes in an Arizona Secret Shopper Study, 2023.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- NEXT: description, rationale, and evaluation of a novel internet-based mail-delivered syringe service program.Journal of substance use · 2024Article
- "As safe as possible": a qualitative study of opioid withdrawal and risk behavior among people who use illegal opioids.Harm reduction journal · 2023Article
- The PharmNet Harm Reduction Intervention for Community Pharmacies: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2022Article
- A qualitative examination of naloxone access in three states: Connecticut, Kentucky, and Wisconsin.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Health care-seeking experiences for people who inject drugs with hepatitis C: Qualitative explorations of stigma.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 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
- Study protocol for the Respond to Prevent Study: a multi-state randomized controlled trial to improve provision of naloxone, buprenorphine and nonprescription syringes in community pharmacies.Substance abuse · 2022Article
- Consider the Source: Associations between Syringe Sources and Risky Injection Behaviors in California's Central Valley.Substance use & misuse · 2021Article
- Access to syringes at pharmacies (ASAP): Preliminary impact of a pharmacy-level intervention.Journal of the American Pharmacists Association : JAPhAArticle
- Self-injection experiences among transgender people on injectable gender-affirming hormone therapy: A narrative review.Journal of the American Pharmacists Association : JAPhAReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCommunity pharmacies are important for health access by rural populations and those who do not have optimum access to the health system, because they provide myriad health services and are found in most communities. This includes the sale of non-prescription syringes, a practice that is legal in the USA in all but two states. However, people who inject drugs (PWID) face significant barriers accessing sterile syringes, particularly in states without laws allowing syringe services programming. To our knowledge, no recent studies of pharmacy-based syringe purchase experience have been conducted in communities that are both rural and urban, and none in the Southwestern US. This study seeks to understand the experience of retail pharmacy syringe purchase in Arizona by PWID.
methodsAn interview study was conducted between August and December 2018 with 37 people living in 3 rural and 2 urban Arizona counties who identified as current or former users of injection drugs. Coding was both a priori and emergent, focusing on syringe access through pharmacies, pharmacy experiences generally, experiences of stigma, and recommendations for harm reduction services delivered by pharmacies.
resultsAll participants reported being refused syringe purchase at pharmacies. Six themes emerged about syringe purchase: (1) experience of stigma and judgment by pharmacy staff, (2) feelings of internalized stigma, (3) inconsistent sales outcomes at the same pharmacy or pharmacy chain, (4) pharmacies as last resort for syringes, (5) fear of arrest for syringe possession, and (6) health risks resulting from syringe refusal.
conclusionsNon-prescription syringe sales in community pharmacies are a missed opportunity to improve the health of PWID by reducing syringe sharing and reuse. Yet, current pharmacy syringe sales refusal and stigmatization by staff suggest that pharmacy-level interventions will be necessary to impact pharmacy practice. Lack of access to sterile syringes reinforces health risk behaviors among PWID. Retail syringe sales at pharmacies remain an important, yet barrier-laden, element of a comprehensive public health response to reduce HIV and hepatitis C among PWID. Future studies should test multilevel evidence-based interventions to decrease staff discrimination and stigma and increase syringe sales.
Indexed as
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.