Jabberwocky
Frumious Bandersnatch
- Joined
- Nov 3, 1999
- Messages
- 84,998
AT 6am on a Sunday morning around London’s gay clubbing hot spots, you can open Grindr and a whole new world materialises before your eyes, says 32-year-old Dick.
“Every other name has got ‘point’, implying that they use needles, and ‘Tina’, the abbreviated name for crystal meth,” he explains.
He pulls out his phone and reads a message on the app from a stranger, decorated with a pig emoji indicating dirt and sleaze. “Be good to meet up with you and breed ...”
This is the chemsex scene, a hedonistic tempest in which hardcore drugs and group sex have combined to create a world that is as accessible as it is dangerous.
The trend has reached fever-pitch in London’s gay community, but is spreading around the world, thanks to what health professionals call a “perfect storm” of hook-up apps, popular new party drugs that make users crave sex and an enticing air of sexual liberation.
It has been called the biggest crisis in the gay community in 30 years.
“There’s a lot of things that’s wrong with the whole thing,” says Dick, from Watford, in explicit and shocking British documentary Chemsex, screening around Australia next month.
“The drugs are illegal. The sex that’s going on isn’t probably morally correct.
“We’re tarting it up with new names to make it sound acceptable — we’re not injecting drugs like the heroin addicts, we’re slamming, and we’re using pins, not needles.
“Do you fancy using five-month-old syringes to get off your face and not know what you’re doing?’ doesn’t sound like a very tempting invite.
“Do you fancy a chemsex session? Oh, yes please.”
Crystal methamphetamine, or ice, is Dick’s drug of choice, but other men on the chemsex scene describe an “alphabet soup” of favoured drugs — V (viagra), T (tina, or meth), G (GHB, a depressant), M (mephedrone, a stimulant) and K (ketamine, the horse tranquilliser).
“It’s a newly identified syndemic of behaviours, drugs and technology,” London-based NHS specialist David Stuart, from Melbourne, told news.com.au.
“Chemsex has become part of the cultural discourse among gay communities, online ‘hooking-up’ experiences, and social media.
“The use of drugs to facilitate or enhance sex is not exclusive to gay men in particular, it just represents a greater public health concern to gay men because of the higher prevalence of sexually transmitted infections — particularly HIV — that exist within gay communities.”
The potentially fatal virus is a serious concern about the scene, with many identifying themselves as “pozzie” — or HIV positive — to facilitate unprotected “bareback” days-long sex parties, or “chillouts”.
Some “negs” (HIV negative) — their recklessness fuelled by drugs or even an extreme from of masochism — have been known to join in anyway.
Along with HIV, the extreme trend presents a host of alarming health risks, including other STIs, infection from shared needles and drug overdoses and addiction.
Dick describes one night he went home from a club with three men and one overdosed on GHB. Others in the unflinching Vice documentary, directed by William Fairman and Max Gogarty, talk about friends looking “possessed, wild, hungry and
desperate” and describe sexual assault, paranoid hallucinations and entire weeks lost.
One Spanish investment banker says he ended up selling his body. Others explain how members of a group sex session would start getting out their phones to look for their next partners, before the action was even over.
Graphic footage shows men in fetishwear openly injecting and snorting drugs as they use sex swings.
A gay sauna owner describes how, despite random searches, a couple overdosed at his venue. One of them was apparently still looking for sex while his partner was comatose — until he passed out, too.
A sign on the wall reads: “Do you want your friends and family finding out you died in a gay sauna?”
It’s disturbingly easy for young gay men moving to big cities to quickly find themselves in too deep with the chemsex scene.
Dr Stuart’s Dean Street Wellbeing program is world-leading because it tries to treat the complete problem.
“Chemsex seems to be affecting gay men in particular because of some cultural issues associated with gay ‘scenes’ and issues around sexual behaviour and identity,” Dr Stuart says.
“These include changing technologies (geo-sexual networking apps in particular), a unique sexual liberation supported by apps and saunas or sex-on-premises venues, and the emergence of new drugs that have replaced ecstasy and cocaine as those most commonly favoured.
“These drugs have powerful, sexually-disinhibiting effects — I’m talking about crystal methamphetamine, GHB/GBL and, more commonly in Europe, mephedrone.”
Nic Holas, from The Institute of Many (TIM), a peer-run group for HIV-positive Australians that is holding talks at the screenings, told news.com.au the film opens up an important debate about meth and the gay community.
“Crystal meth amphetamine has been positioned by the media and the government as this ‘war on ice’, predominantly an issue affecting regional Australia, we see families being ruined,” Mr Holas said.
“We need to be having a specific conversation about gay men and men who have sex with men — trans people too. Lesbians have a higher representation among people who take meth. With trans people, we know it’s an issue anecdotally but can’t prove it, we don’t have data, which is crazy.
“Only 10 per cent of men have used meth in past six months, while 30 per cent with HIV have used it in the same time period, so there’s a difference there between the negative and positive community.”
Mr Holas agrees that for gay men, sex has historically been tied up with fear because of the risks of HIV and the AIDS crisis still lingering in recent memory.
“It creates a barrier to pleasure,” he said. “It’s not really surprising that crystal meth amphetamine comes along and unlocks mental barriers and anxieties and allows a sense of freedom. I don’t think we should be surprised at the take-up rate.”
But he warned that he did have concerns over some scenes showing vulnerable people high on drugs and having sex in front of the cameras, adding that some viewers were highly distressed by the documentary.
“The film is important but it also colours the experience of the gay community in London and chemsex, what we call PnP (party and play) in a particularly dramatic light. It definitely sensationalises the community,” he says.
“Human beings can’t be used as collateral for shock value, but at same time there is important messaging here and the chance to start a conversation.
“There are some really fantastic examples in the film of gay men taking care of each other where they do choose to use drugs.
“The gay community really wrote the rules on harm reduction. At dance parties there were always ‘angels’ and ‘guardians’ to take care of people.
“We set the standard in taking care of each other. The vast majority is incredibly responsible and community focused.”
He said TIM’s program “Turning Tina” had uncovered many Australians who said: “‘I’ve always thought of myself as a strong person not susceptible to addiction ... I have a job, a home, I’m well-connected, I could never become one of those guys, those junkies.’
“Then they got near Tina. If you’re not watching out for signposts, you can fall into the horror story.”
Dr Stuart, who has had HIV for 23 years, says there’s an element of “escapism” for many of the men he counsels.
Despite apparent liberation and acceptance for the gay community, he said some are grappling with shame about who they are, and an inability to incorporate vulnerability and intimacy into their sex lives.
With kindness, resilience and pride, Dr Stuart believes anyone can create change in their lives, despite the challengesof sober sex, fears about forming relationships and the availability of chems online and in bars.
“People often report the best sex they’ve ever had, at least superficially, but then struggle to handle the sometimes devastating consequences that follow,” he says.
“Some people need a ‘rock-bottom’ experience, which might be an HIV or hepatitis C diagnosis, a frightening psychotic episode when they’ve been partying too long, or perhaps a sexual assault in a sauna or at a chemsex party.
“Others prefer to seek help to avoid those things happening in the first place, to play more safely, though not always committing to stopping altogether.
“Outcomes are defined by what the patient or client wants, not what we want for them.”
The British Medical Journal called for chemsex to be named a “public health priority” in November, and its influence is spreading. While it may be more of a niche interest in Australia, many believe it needs to be openly discussed as part of the
nation’s growing issue with meth.
One young man in the film sums it up: “Originally, sex and drugs were different things, but somewhere along the line they became one and the same, so you were no longer having sex without drugs, and you were no longer having drugs without sex.”
Source: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/re...x/news-story/88bdb86dd790dfe3abe7e411e86f6429
“Every other name has got ‘point’, implying that they use needles, and ‘Tina’, the abbreviated name for crystal meth,” he explains.
He pulls out his phone and reads a message on the app from a stranger, decorated with a pig emoji indicating dirt and sleaze. “Be good to meet up with you and breed ...”
This is the chemsex scene, a hedonistic tempest in which hardcore drugs and group sex have combined to create a world that is as accessible as it is dangerous.
The trend has reached fever-pitch in London’s gay community, but is spreading around the world, thanks to what health professionals call a “perfect storm” of hook-up apps, popular new party drugs that make users crave sex and an enticing air of sexual liberation.
It has been called the biggest crisis in the gay community in 30 years.
“There’s a lot of things that’s wrong with the whole thing,” says Dick, from Watford, in explicit and shocking British documentary Chemsex, screening around Australia next month.
“The drugs are illegal. The sex that’s going on isn’t probably morally correct.
“We’re tarting it up with new names to make it sound acceptable — we’re not injecting drugs like the heroin addicts, we’re slamming, and we’re using pins, not needles.
“Do you fancy using five-month-old syringes to get off your face and not know what you’re doing?’ doesn’t sound like a very tempting invite.
“Do you fancy a chemsex session? Oh, yes please.”
Crystal methamphetamine, or ice, is Dick’s drug of choice, but other men on the chemsex scene describe an “alphabet soup” of favoured drugs — V (viagra), T (tina, or meth), G (GHB, a depressant), M (mephedrone, a stimulant) and K (ketamine, the horse tranquilliser).
“It’s a newly identified syndemic of behaviours, drugs and technology,” London-based NHS specialist David Stuart, from Melbourne, told news.com.au.
“Chemsex has become part of the cultural discourse among gay communities, online ‘hooking-up’ experiences, and social media.
“The use of drugs to facilitate or enhance sex is not exclusive to gay men in particular, it just represents a greater public health concern to gay men because of the higher prevalence of sexually transmitted infections — particularly HIV — that exist within gay communities.”
The potentially fatal virus is a serious concern about the scene, with many identifying themselves as “pozzie” — or HIV positive — to facilitate unprotected “bareback” days-long sex parties, or “chillouts”.
Some “negs” (HIV negative) — their recklessness fuelled by drugs or even an extreme from of masochism — have been known to join in anyway.
Along with HIV, the extreme trend presents a host of alarming health risks, including other STIs, infection from shared needles and drug overdoses and addiction.
Dick describes one night he went home from a club with three men and one overdosed on GHB. Others in the unflinching Vice documentary, directed by William Fairman and Max Gogarty, talk about friends looking “possessed, wild, hungry and
desperate” and describe sexual assault, paranoid hallucinations and entire weeks lost.
One Spanish investment banker says he ended up selling his body. Others explain how members of a group sex session would start getting out their phones to look for their next partners, before the action was even over.
Graphic footage shows men in fetishwear openly injecting and snorting drugs as they use sex swings.
A gay sauna owner describes how, despite random searches, a couple overdosed at his venue. One of them was apparently still looking for sex while his partner was comatose — until he passed out, too.
A sign on the wall reads: “Do you want your friends and family finding out you died in a gay sauna?”
It’s disturbingly easy for young gay men moving to big cities to quickly find themselves in too deep with the chemsex scene.
Dr Stuart’s Dean Street Wellbeing program is world-leading because it tries to treat the complete problem.
“Chemsex seems to be affecting gay men in particular because of some cultural issues associated with gay ‘scenes’ and issues around sexual behaviour and identity,” Dr Stuart says.
“These include changing technologies (geo-sexual networking apps in particular), a unique sexual liberation supported by apps and saunas or sex-on-premises venues, and the emergence of new drugs that have replaced ecstasy and cocaine as those most commonly favoured.
“These drugs have powerful, sexually-disinhibiting effects — I’m talking about crystal methamphetamine, GHB/GBL and, more commonly in Europe, mephedrone.”
Nic Holas, from The Institute of Many (TIM), a peer-run group for HIV-positive Australians that is holding talks at the screenings, told news.com.au the film opens up an important debate about meth and the gay community.
“Crystal meth amphetamine has been positioned by the media and the government as this ‘war on ice’, predominantly an issue affecting regional Australia, we see families being ruined,” Mr Holas said.
“We need to be having a specific conversation about gay men and men who have sex with men — trans people too. Lesbians have a higher representation among people who take meth. With trans people, we know it’s an issue anecdotally but can’t prove it, we don’t have data, which is crazy.
“Only 10 per cent of men have used meth in past six months, while 30 per cent with HIV have used it in the same time period, so there’s a difference there between the negative and positive community.”
Mr Holas agrees that for gay men, sex has historically been tied up with fear because of the risks of HIV and the AIDS crisis still lingering in recent memory.
“It creates a barrier to pleasure,” he said. “It’s not really surprising that crystal meth amphetamine comes along and unlocks mental barriers and anxieties and allows a sense of freedom. I don’t think we should be surprised at the take-up rate.”
But he warned that he did have concerns over some scenes showing vulnerable people high on drugs and having sex in front of the cameras, adding that some viewers were highly distressed by the documentary.
“The film is important but it also colours the experience of the gay community in London and chemsex, what we call PnP (party and play) in a particularly dramatic light. It definitely sensationalises the community,” he says.
“Human beings can’t be used as collateral for shock value, but at same time there is important messaging here and the chance to start a conversation.
“There are some really fantastic examples in the film of gay men taking care of each other where they do choose to use drugs.
“The gay community really wrote the rules on harm reduction. At dance parties there were always ‘angels’ and ‘guardians’ to take care of people.
“We set the standard in taking care of each other. The vast majority is incredibly responsible and community focused.”
He said TIM’s program “Turning Tina” had uncovered many Australians who said: “‘I’ve always thought of myself as a strong person not susceptible to addiction ... I have a job, a home, I’m well-connected, I could never become one of those guys, those junkies.’
“Then they got near Tina. If you’re not watching out for signposts, you can fall into the horror story.”
Dr Stuart, who has had HIV for 23 years, says there’s an element of “escapism” for many of the men he counsels.
Despite apparent liberation and acceptance for the gay community, he said some are grappling with shame about who they are, and an inability to incorporate vulnerability and intimacy into their sex lives.
With kindness, resilience and pride, Dr Stuart believes anyone can create change in their lives, despite the challengesof sober sex, fears about forming relationships and the availability of chems online and in bars.
“People often report the best sex they’ve ever had, at least superficially, but then struggle to handle the sometimes devastating consequences that follow,” he says.
“Some people need a ‘rock-bottom’ experience, which might be an HIV or hepatitis C diagnosis, a frightening psychotic episode when they’ve been partying too long, or perhaps a sexual assault in a sauna or at a chemsex party.
“Others prefer to seek help to avoid those things happening in the first place, to play more safely, though not always committing to stopping altogether.
“Outcomes are defined by what the patient or client wants, not what we want for them.”
The British Medical Journal called for chemsex to be named a “public health priority” in November, and its influence is spreading. While it may be more of a niche interest in Australia, many believe it needs to be openly discussed as part of the
nation’s growing issue with meth.
One young man in the film sums it up: “Originally, sex and drugs were different things, but somewhere along the line they became one and the same, so you were no longer having sex without drugs, and you were no longer having drugs without sex.”
Source: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/re...x/news-story/88bdb86dd790dfe3abe7e411e86f6429
