A study of drug use locations in Hartford, CT, Is designed to understand the environmental and social conditions within “high risk sites” where drug users inject drugs or smoke crack, In order to develop AIDS prevention models that build upon the physical and social organization of these locations. The study assesses high-risk sites characterized on the basis of type of location or structure, presence and strength of gatekeepers, and presence and strength of HIV prevention opportunities and pressures. A combination of ethnographic, epidemiological, and social network methods are used to document the characteristics, social organization, natural history, and dynamics of these sites, the network relations of site users, and the various opportunities for, or barriers to, on-site social-level HIV prevention intervention. This paper provides an overview of the study and presents preliminary findings, Including the degree to which drug injectors and crack smokers use specific types of sites in Hartford. The paper also discusses the ways these findings Inform development of on-site, type-specific and peer-led or structural HIV-prevention Interventions.
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