Sharan's response to drug use in Delhi began in the midst of an 'epidemic' of injecting drug use in the early 1990s. Sharan's services to drug users developed over the next five years in response to a slum community's request to Sharan to help them deal with drug use in their community. During the early stages of this response, Sharan staff noticed that a number of smack users (generally people who inhaled brown sugar) had begun to inject a cocktail of pharmaceutical drugs instead. The HIV epidemic among IDUs in Manipur ,in the north east of India, had already been identified in 1989. An epidemic of HIV in the area would threaten to undermine any gains already made through Sharan's community health activities. Consequently, Sharan included HIV prevention in the community health activities. As a result, many services were designed to particularly suit the needs of injecting drug users.

Sharan developed an outpatient treatment and referral service specifically for injecting drug users in Nizamuddin Basti in New Delhi, from 1993 to 1998 supported by the European Union. During this time, networking with other services, and the introduction of some new residential programmes took place. This network of services with a commitment to providing relevant health care services to drug users at any point of their lives has been described as a 'continuum of care'.