AEGiS-APPJ: The Transition from Opium Smoking to Heroin Injection in the United States

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1991. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

The Transition from Opium Smoking to Heroin Injection in the United States

AIDS & Public Policy Journal 6, no. 2 (Summer 1991): 88-89
Don C. Des Jarlais

The AIDS epidemic among intravenous drug users in developed and developing countries has greatly increased interest in the details of illicit drug use. Thus it may be possible to greatly reduce the transmission of HIV by preventing the sharing of drug injection equipment, without necessarily having to reduce the use of illicit drugs. HIV transmission among drug users could be substantially reduced by the adoption of "safer" forms of injection or by preventing those who are currently using illicit drugs through other routes from taking up the practice of injection. In this article we will examine the transition from noninjecting to injecting drug use, at a societal level. In particular, we will examine the transition from opium smoking to heroin injection as the dominant form of illicit opiate use of the United States. In our examination of the transition from opium smoking to heroin injection, we will note features of the process that are applicable to countries where the primary form of illicit drug use is smoking and where there is a potential for a shift to injecting.
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