Why are syringes re-used?
The main reason is lack of injecting equipment supply. There are approximately 130,000 people in the UK who currently inject illicit drugs, injecting on average 3 times a day.

This means that there are around 142,350,000 injections per year... Needle and syringe distribution in the UK is probably around 35 million units per year – an average of barely one syringe per injector per day, and a long way short of one syringe per injection for everyone.

Some injectors do use a new syringe every time, but for the large number who don't, they must re-use injecting equipment. Prevention of deliberate or accidental re-use of someone else's equipment is a priority for harm reduction services.

Nevershare syringes will not necessarily increase the number of syringes available (and they're in no way designed to impede efforts to increase coverage and syringe distribution) but they should reduce accidental sharing due to equipment mix up, and may increase coverage by encouraging injectors to change behaviour and conserve their equipment.

Even if we increase injecting equipment supply massively, there are still likely to be injectors who, because of social or geographical isolation or preference who continue to store and re-use injecting equipment and for them the mixed colours will remain a valuable tool to avoid sharing, and for those using a new syringe every time,the 'nevershare' brandingl reinforces this key message.