Pharmacy Syringe Sale Practices During the First Year of Expanded Syringe Availability in New York City (2001–2002)

Objective

To assess the role that customer characteristics, including race, age, and gender and pharmacy characteristics, including type and location, play on actual syringe-selling practice by pharmacies registered to sell syringes under the New York State Expanded Syringe Access Demonstration Program (ESAP).

Design

89 syringe-purchasing visits were made in randomly selected ESAP registered pharmacies, stratified by chain and independent status.

Setting

Visits were conducted in 14 New York City neighborhoods. Three neighborhoods (two with high need for human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] prevention services and one with low need) were selected in each of New York City’s five boroughs (except Staten Island, where only two neighborhoods were visited, as only one exists with high need for HIV prevention services).

Participants

Visits were conducted by syringe-purchasing testers with different demographic characteristics, including age (≤ 25 and > 25), race/ethnicity (white, black, Latino), and gender (men, women).

Results

Testers were able to purchase syringes in 69% of visits. Tester race, age, and gender did not significantly affect sales of syringe-selling practices. Location of pharmacy was statistically significant, with only 33% of the registered pharmacies selling syringes in the Bronx, but 67% to 89% selling in other four boroughs.

Conclusions

ESAP has been widely implemented among registered pharmacies in four of New York City’s five boroughs. The program’s effectiveness could be enhanced through pharmacy-based efforts focused broadly on the ESAP goal of preventing the transmission of HIV and other blood-borne infections among injection drug users.