Guides › Hepatitis C for people living with HIV

Recreational drugs

The liver is the organ that processes most recreational drugs. Some are more toxic than others, but all will stress your liver to some extent. They are also likely to contain impurities and unspecified ingredients that are also toxic and difficult to assess.

In general, injecting drugs is more dangerous as this bypasses the filtering system of the stomach.

If you are injecting drugs, using sterile equipment (syringe, cooker, filter, water, tie and measuring syringe) will protect you from reinfection with hepatitis C and other infections.

You may want to consider reducing your intake of recreational drugs, or stopping. If so, there are places where you can get help.

Some recreational drugs may have interactions with HIV drugs.

For more information see: www.hivclinic.ca/main/drugs_interact.html and hiv-druginteractions.org

And the report Delivering HIV care and treatment for people who use drugs.

Support organisations

National Drugs Helpline 0800 776600 (24 hrs) www.ndh.org.uk

Narcotics Anonymous 0845 3733366 (24 hrs) www.ukna.org.uk

Cocaine Anonymous 0800 6120225 (10am-10pm) www.cauk.org.uk

Drugscope 0870 7743 682 (10am – 1pm, Mon-Fri) www.drugscope.org.uk

Other sources of direct help or information for other organisations include your GP, your local Drug and Alcohol Service, your HIV specialist and your HCV specialist.

March 2009

Decisions relating to your treatment should always be taken in consultation with your doctor. Information in this guide is intended to support those discussions.

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