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Where to get new needles
Access to new needles will differ throughout the country. This can take the form of a needle exchange, a mobile delivery service or a pharmacy based scheme.
Dedicated needle exchanges
These are special projects set up to exchange needles and syringes. They will often require users to give minimal information and are usually happy for people to register under false names. They will usually offer far more than just a needle exchange and will often have a primary health care nurse who can advise users about safer injecting practice and look at problems that may have arisen from injecting. These are usually very friendly projects which are not there to push users into stopping but to promote harm reduction techniques.
Project–based needle exchanges
Many needle exchanges are run as part of community drug agencies, or sometimes HIV teams. They may run a needle exchange on special days of the week or run the facility alongside their other services. Again, this provides people with access to other services. These teams may also have a primary health care nurse.
Mobile or outreach schemes
There are other needle exchanges that do not run from a fixed project base. These may be the only local exchange facility or an extension of a project based service. These schemes may run in a number of different ways:
- Satellite Schemes: a needle exchange is brought into a host agency for regular sessions. This could be in a probation office, a youth club, community centre or GP practice
- Mobile Schemes: A needle exchange which operates from a van or bus visiting fixed places on a regular basis
- Delivery Schemes: Some outreach teams run delivery services for all or some groups of users. These are usually run via mobile phones
- Dealer Based Schemes: some outreach workers deliver needles and syringes to dealers who give out sterile equipment to their customers.
There are other variations on this theme. Find out what happens in your local area.
Pharmacy–based schemes
In some areas needle exchange is undertaken via chemists. These schemes take different forms but usually users receive packs of injecting equipment and information. Some schemes require a minimal amount of information for registration and may give the user a kind of membership card, while others may operate more informally. Even where there is no formal scheme many chemists will sell needles and syringes and some users will prefer the anonymity of a commercial transaction.
How to find them
Full details of needle exchanges and drugs agencies are contained in NAM's UK AIDS Directory.
Most needle exchanges will also offer safer injecting advice, primary health care, free condoms and safer sex advice and maybe more – just ask!