Over the past decade, a policy known as harm reduction (HR) has developed in France, with the aim of preventing health and social problems associated with drug use, particularly infections with the HIV virus and hepatitis (HCV, HBV) resulting from needle sharing among intravenous drug users (IDUs) who cannot or do not wish to give up this method of use, and to reduce injection among others. To achieve these objectives: - sterile syringes have been sold without a prescription in pharmacies since May 1987 or distributed free of charge by more than a hundred organizations since March 1995; - oral substitution medications have been prescribed in private practice since March 1995 for methadone and February 1996 for Subutex. Here we present a database that helps track sales of harm reduction tools, and then discuss the major trends emerging from this monitoring from 1996 to 1999 by comparing them with certain indicators of social and health risks associated with drug addiction.