I-V drug users have found a new way to spread infectious diseases--and you won't believe it

In my youth I used to read news stories and think "It couldn't possibly get worse."  But of course it always got worse.

So for those of you who naively believe I-V drug users could not possibly get any dumber, I give you this story from the vaunted leftist rag, the NY Times, yesterday:

Blood-Sharing Drug Trend Fuels Alarming Global HIV Surge

Sub-head: The practice, in which users inject the blood of already-high drug users, has fueled one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemics in the Pacific and grown widespread in South Africa.

Now: the reason I-V drug users have a huge incidence of HIV is that if they only have one syringe, they generously share it with their friends.  If you don't have free syringes, druggies are told to squeeze alcohol thru the thing between users to to clean the needle to prevent one user's infected blood from transmitting the HIV virus.

But I know you'll be shocked to learn that way over half of I-V drug users skip that life-saving step. Wow, who could have predicted that, eh?

But now clever druggies have found a better way to infect each other: Users who wanna get high but don't have drug money aren't just sharing unsterilized used needles. Instead they're drawing a couple of cc's of blood from other druggies who are already high, and injecting the entire draw into themselves in an effort to get high.

This is insane on two levels: First, instead of only injecting a tiny fraction of a drop of infected blood in the used needle, these yahoos are injecting a thousand times more blood.  So if the first user is infected, the second is virtually certain to get the infection.

And sure enough, researchers claim HIV is spiking where I-V drug use is high. 

Second: let's suppose the first user injects, say, 2 cc's of heroin or liquid meth.  The average body has roughly 8 liters of blood, or 8000 cc's.  So the drug in the blood of the first user has been diluted to 1/4000th of its original strength.  So if the druggie injecting blood injects two cc's of blood from the first user, he or she is getting virtually no drug.  

The blood-sharing practice has helped fuel fast-growing HIV. epidemics in Fiji and South Africa, according to public health authorities.

The idea of I-V drug users sharing drug-laced blood is so astonishingly dangerous that for years experts thought it almost never happened.   But never underestimate the stupidity and cunning of druggies.

As everyone with an IQ above 80 knows, the NY Times is a shit-left wokie bunch, so you may be surprise to find 'em running ANY kind of story that doesn't slobberingly support drug use.  Cuz one of the loudest bleats from Dems is "Everyone is entitled to do anything they want about drugs!"

But never fear, citizen: The Times just waited a few paragraphs to blame...poverty, law enforcement cutting supplies, and higher prices of drugs due to reductions in the supply of drugs.

>>"Blood sharing has emerged in high-poverty areas in Africa and Asia, driven by tougher policing, spiking prices and falling drug supplies.">>

See, deplorables?  It's your fault!

This is the only known instance of the Times even tacitly admitting the laws of supply and demand are real.

A "professor who has studied drug injecting behaviors in South Africa" says “In settings of severe poverty, [injecting blood] is a cheap method of getting high with a lot of consequences.   You’re getting two doses for the price of one.”

Clearly math isn't the professors' strong suit.  Cuz again, if the second user only injects 2 cc's, he or she is getting 1/4000th of the dose of the donor.

And finally, 23 paragraphs into the story, we see this:

"One reason the practice hasn’t been more widespread is that it delivers a diminished dose of a drug. It isn’t clear how much of a high secondary users receive, and some medical experts say there is no more than a placebo effect."

About half of newly diagnosed people being treated for HIV in Fiji said they contracted the disease by sharing needles, according to 2024 data, though researchers didn't ask how many of them intentionally shared blood.  All we know is that HIV in Fiji has jumped ten-fold in ten years.

"In Tanzania the practice has spread from the inner city to the suburbs, and women in short-term housing were disproportionately vulnerable.

Ahhh, now we're back to familiar ground: when the Times (and Democrats) want to push public opinion against a policy, they always claim "women and children disproportionately affected." 

The Times says "In Pakistan users sell blood-infused heroin syringes."

“The problem is poverty, lack of awareness and cheap drugs being introduced and then the price going up,” said one expert.  He added that in Fiji, "stigma against drug use remains a significant challenge."

"SEE, deplorables?!  Duh reeeel problem is dat yew deplorables haz "stigmatized"  drug use!  If you deplorables would just stop whining about drug use we wudn't have had dis alleged spike in HIV.  Everyt'ing wud be jus' ducky!"

Source.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/world/asia/bluetoothing-drug-blood-sharing.html