Crystal meth: piloting harm reduction for shabu users in Indonesia

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Crystal meth: piloting harm reduction for shabu users in Indonesia

13 September 2016

Crystal meth is a popular drug in Indonesia. Recent years have seen an increase in the number of meth users, locally known under the street name shabu. However, so far, harm reduction services don’t target meth users. Mainline and local partner Karisma started an innovative pilot in Indonesia to change this.

The reason why Mainline finds it important to develop interventions that target this group of people who use drugs (PWUD) is that the research conducted by the Atma Jaya University in Jakarta shows that Shabu users are at increased risk of HIV infection and other STIs. This is true whether people snort, smoke or inject their drugs. The research also showed that Crystal meth users avoid existing HIV intervention programmes in Indonesia. They associate these services with heroin users and don’t identify with them.

The aim of the new harm reduction pilot is to reach this hidden population and address their health needs. A special peer-driven outreach team will experiment with different outreach strategies to reach the often hidden subgroups of crystal meth users. One can think of Men who have Sex with Men (MSM), sex workers and their clients, people who work night shifts or even students. Experimenting with new ways of outreach work will help to develop best practices on how to provide harm reduction to meth users. By documenting the lessons learned and strong data collection, we hope to develop a set of specific harm reductions interventions that can be replicated in other regions in Indonesia.

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