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This project, funded by NHMRC and NSW Health, aimed to investigate and report on a number of aspects of initiation and transition to injecting drug use among young people. The report focuses on issues of: • transition to injecting – what drugs were used prior to injection, what was participants’ contact with injectors; • the initiation episode – describing the factors about the occasion (what drugs were used, where injecting equipment was accessed), as well as characteristics of the initiator and their social networks; • the effect of drug most frequently used – between current stimulant and opioid injectors; • age at initiation – differences between early and late initiators; • hepatitis C status – self-reporting of positive hepatitis C serostatus; • risk practice for blood borne viruses – variables of risk, demography, and social networks are examined in determining those more likely to self-report risk practices such as sharing, borrowing or re-using injection equipment; • transitions out of injecting – we examine patterns of drug use and efforts of participants to reduce or stop drug use., NCHSR MONOGRAPH 8/2003

The study surveyed a large number of men recruited from Sydney and Melbourne as well as conducting close focus in-depth interviews with a smaller number of them. This report draws on a selected number of topics from the interview data with implications for public health policy and practice.