This resource is part of the Safer Using Series and provides information about signs of dependence and contacts for further support.
The Safer Using Series is the NSP Handbook’s companion resource. This is a set of brochures on topics such as injecting, hepatitis C, keeping healthy, and drug use and the law.
Some people who inject drugs are not dependent on them and have a good deal of control over their use. Some people have much less control, and some very little control at all. Dependence, can be physical, psychological or both: when someone needs a drug to function normally, when someone finds it very difficult to stop even when it’s causing them harm.