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The smoking of crack cocaine has been associated with high-risk sexual practices that increase the risk for acquiring HIV infection. This ambitious cross-sectional study by Edlin, et al. examined the association between the use of crack cocaine and the HIV epidemic.
Outreach workers interviewed and collected blood samples for HIV testing from 18- to 29-year-old crack smokers and nonsmokers from inner city areas of Miami, New York City, and San Francisco. The 1967 study participants (85%) who reported that they never injected drugs were included in this analysis.
Crack smokers were more likely than nonsmokers to be African-American than Hispanic or white, and reported more high-risk sexual practices, particularly women. Overall, the prevalence…