Editing Needle and syringe programmes (section)

=== United Kingdom ===
{{expand section|date=April 2014}}

From the 1980s, [[Maggie Telfer]] from the Bristol Drugs Project advocated for needle exchanges to be established in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ayres |first1=Rachel |title=Maggie Telfer obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/apr/21/maggie-telfer-obituary |website=[[The Guardian]] |date=21 April 2023 |access-date=23 April 2023}}</ref> The British public body, the [[National Institute for Health and Care Excellence]] (NICE), introduced a recommendation in April 2014 due to an increase in the number of young people who inject [[steroid]]s at UK needle exchanges. NICE previously published needle exchange guidelines in 2009, in which needle and syringe services were not advised for people under 18, but the organisation's director Professor Mike Kelly explained that a "completely different group" of people were presenting at programmes. In the updated guidance, NICE recommended the provision of specialist services for "rapidly increasing numbers of steroid users", and that needles should be provided to people under the age of 18—a first for NICE—following reports of 15-year-old steroid injectors seeking to develop their muscles.<ref>{{cite news|title=NICE: Needle exchanges should supply safe equipment to under-18 steroid users|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nice-needle-exchanges-should-supply-safe-equipment-to-under18-steroid-users-9247087.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nice-needle-exchanges-should-supply-safe-equipment-to-under18-steroid-users-9247087.html |archive-date=2022-06-18 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=9 April 2014|newspaper=The Independent|date=9 April 2014|author=Charlie Cooper}}</ref>