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Text on inside cover of pad:
Encouraging good injecting technique will help prolong the life of veins. It is therefore an important harm reduction intervention that can delay injectors ‘progressing’ to more dangerous sites.

The advice on the attached cards gives injecting drug users clear advice on how to prolong the life of veins. Checking injecting sites can give an opportunity to reinforce good practice or explain how bad practice can shorten the life of veins. Advice on good injecting technique should be given whenever possible.

Once drug users begin injecting, getting them to stop can be very difficult. For workers there is a difficult balance to strike when giving advice and information.

When talking to users who are expressing concern about the consequences of injecting, suggest non-injecting routes of administration (NIROA), and discuss ways of reducing harm. It is vital that services to injectors do not increase stigma, or drive people away through appearing to be too judgemental.

The cards in this pad are designed to give injectors advice they need to prolong the life of their veins and reduce the risk of them ‘progressing’ to more dangerous injecting sites.

Most injectors start by injecting into their arms. If the veins in the arm start to deteriorate, it is important that workers discuss the options for the future. These include switching to less dangerous routes of administration. It can also be useful to reinforce any taboos or negative feelings that the client has about the use of more risky sites such as the neck and groin.

Preventing, or delaying, the transition to the use of more risky sites may be a life-saving intervention.

Text from card:
You’ve only got one set of veins.
If you take care of them, they’ll last longer.

Go slow. Be gentle.
Rotate sites to let your veins recover.
Use the smallest needle possible.

Always

• Always wash your hands and injection site before and after every injection.
• Always clean your mixing equipment.
• Always use a new sterile needle and syringe every time.
• Always learn to inject into both arms.
• Always consider smoking, snorting, swallowing or shafting when you need to rest your veins.
• Always remove all rings and tight bracelets before injecting (in case your arm swells).
• Always ask Needle and Syringe Program staff for further safer injecting information.

Never

• Never go back and inject where there is redness, pain, swelling or infection.
• Never jack back blood and ‘flush’ the syringe after your shot - this doesn’t get more drugs into your system, but it does cause vein damage.
• Never use a tourniquet unless you have to (and if you do, release it before injecting).
• Never inject highly irritant substances like pills (especially benzos!).
• Never inject cocaine into the same area more than once every few hours - the local anaesthetic effect means you can easily cause serious damage.
• Never re-use injecting equipment.

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