Punitive policing and associated substance use risks among HIV-positive people in Russia who inject drugs.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Drug law enforcement is part of the HIV risk environment among people who inject drugs (PWID). Punitive policing practices such as extrajudicial arrests for needle possession and police planting of drugs have been described anecdotally in Russia, but these experiences and their associations with risky drug behaviours have not been quantified. This study aims to quantify the burden of extrajudicial police arrests among a cohort of HIV-positive PWID in Russia and to explore its links to drug-related health outcomes.

Methods

In a cross-sectional study of 582 HIV-positive people with lifetime injection drug use (IDU) in St. Petersburg, Russia, we estimated the prevalence of self-reported extrajudicial police arrests. We used multiple logistic regression to evaluate

SUBMITTER: Lunze K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4093768 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature