18 You be the doctor - Case studies on drug use

Purpose	Information about drug use and abuse and its relationship to HIV/AIDS is important. The following topics are discussed:
	· Drug use and impairment of judgement
	· Abstaining from injection of drugs
	· Clean needle use for injection drugs
	· Method of sterilizing unclean needles

What the teacher does

1. Decide how to teach this activity.

a) Provide each student with an activity sheet and have them provide advice for one or more of the four situations individually, in pairs or in small groups.

b) Read each situation and have students provide advice (and why) from the doctor’s bag which is written on the blackboard (only one activity sheet is needed).

c) Divide the class into small groups and give each group one or more situations for which to provide advice (only one activity sheet is needed for each group).

2. Have students read out their advice for each situation and discuss. Examples of appropriate advice are provided below:

· Situation 1

a) Advice: Don’t use drugs and alcohol -they slow your judgement.

b) Why? You might make decisions that cause you to get pregnant or HIV/STD.

· Situation 2

a) Advice: Get clean (new) needles and syringes if you must use drugs.

b) Why? Used needles and syringes will have small amounts of blood left in them, which may contain HIV.

· Situation 3

a) Advice: Never use injection drugs.

b) Why? They can be damaging to your health and there is a possibility of getting HIV/STD.

· Situation 4

a) Advice: Clean needles with bleach and water if you must use drugs.

b) Why? There will be blood on the dirty needle that may contain HIV.

3. Students should be aware of how to clean needles and syringes. The procedure for this is found in the “questions” section of this guide.