Background and Objective: Drug use can harm to sex workers. Abstinence intervention, however, may not be appropriate since drug use fosters their career performance. The objective was to develop the culturally appropriate model for sex
workers participation on drug demand reduction at the Thailand/Malaysian border.
Material and Method: This study was a pre-post quasi-experimental design. Tripartite participation was used to develop the model aiming to reduce harm regarding drug use. The study carried out during June 2010-May 2011. Data were collected
from 150 key informant interviews, 56 focus group discussions, 22 participant observations in various situations, and numerous related materials. Descriptive statistics, survival analysis and 95% confidence interval were utilized for quantitative data. Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis.
Results: Drug related harm reduction was evaluated at two-week time along implementation period of 12 months. 89.5% of
all sessions introduced could decrease drug related harm. Of all sex workers participated in the study, intended to treat analysis showed 86.9% success rate (95% CI; 77.1, 96.7). Of these, 32.6% became abstinence, 39.1% reduced most of drug related harm. 13.0% reduced partial drug related harm either less frequency, less quantity, less concentration, decrease types
of drugs/switch to safe drugs or safer method of administration. 2.2% was infancy stage, which needed further support.
Conclusion: Key success of the model was tripartite participation. With active leaders and strong support, sex workers were continually motivated to reduce harm regarding drug use.

Keywords: Sex workers, Drug related harm reduction, Culturally appropriate initiative, Thailand