Table 1.

Summary of equipment for drug preparation process

Street Examples95	Recommended Supplies	Purpose96–104
No skin cleanser, tap water, soap and water, hand sanitizer, cloth/tissue, alcoholic beverage	Alcohol wipes	Clean hands and skin at injection site before injection
Spoons, bottle caps	Cookers	Sterile metal cup in which to heat up/dissolve drug powder into solvent
Tap or bottle water, pond or puddle water, spit, toilet water	Sterile water or saline	Solvent for drug solution
Lemon juice, vinegar, kettle descaler	Vitamin C	Acidify solution to help dissolve crack cocaine and “black tar” heroin
Cigarettes, cotton balls, cotton tipped swabs, tampons, lint	Dental/cotton pellets	Catch particulates as the drug solution is drawn up into the syringe; can decrease bacterial loads
Reused needles	New needles	Injecting into vein
Socks, belts, gloves, condoms	Tourniquets	Prepare vein for injection
Reused syringes	Syringes	Injecting into vein
Reused needles/syringes, trash, street	Sharps containers	Safe storage, return syringes and needles to SSP for exchange if available
No wound care	Wound care supplies: band- aids, gauze, gloves, bandage wraps, tape, ointments	Protect open wounds
No preventive services	Fentanyl test strips, condoms, naloxone kits, PrEP	Reduce overdoses, reduce sexually transmitted infections

Abbreviation: PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention.