Why are drugs injected?

There are several possible reasons as to why drugs are injected rather than taken in other forms. The UNDP HIV and Development Programme suggests these include the availability of drugs that can be injected, linked to production locations and trafficking routes; that it is a cheaper and more rapidly acting method; the sharing of knowledge about such techniques that comes from migrating drug users; and so none of the drug becomes lost in smoke, especially when drug control efforts reduce its availability.⁷

The UNDP estimates that the most common change in drug consumption patterns is the move from the smoking of opium to the injecting of heroin and other drugs as a result of law enforcement.⁸ Populations in developing nations have become more exposed to new methods of drug taking, including injecting, as refinement of drugs into injectable forms has been forced from more developed nations and closer to production areas.

In Pakistan, for example, the last 10 to 15 years has seen a shift from the inhalation and smoking of heroin, to the injecting of heroin and synthetic drugs. Injectors of heroin are an ever growing proportion of total heroin users rising from less than 2 percent in 1993 to 15 percent in 2000 to more than a quarter in 2007. This is largely attributed to aggessive drug control measures that have reduced supply, boosted the cost, and made injecting a more economically viable method of consumption.⁹

One HIV-positive IDU in Pakistan described the scarcity and growing cost of heroin as the primary reason for switching from inhaling to injecting: