• By Bob LaMendola, Sun Sentinel,

[19 April 2005]

ALTHOUGH SMALL, the first study of crystal methamphetamine use among gay men in South Florida showed that the drug can spark high-risk sex and may have contributed to a jump in HIV/AIDS in recent years.

Researchers interviewed 15 unidentified crystal meth users, who said the drug lowers inhibitions and fosters artificial feelings of intimacy. The men described going to weekend-long parties that included unprotected sex among multiple partners, sometimes with anonymous mates found on the internet. The findings reflect meth studies done in other parts of the country.

Steven P. Kurtz, a University of Delaware researcher in Coral Gables who wrote the March 2005 study, said he was not trying to quantify the extent of crystal meth use, but show how it can lead to HIV/AIDS infections. He cautioned that the study was small and does not reflect the gay community at large.

Also, other experts noted that much of South Florida's increase in HIV/AIDS in the last few years stems from new infections among heterosexual African-Americans, who were not part of the study.

But Kurtz and others said his interviews of meth users ages 33 to 50 in Miami Beach and Wilton Manors clearly shows that the drug plays a big role in rising infections among gay men, especially those who feel ostracised from mainstream society.

"Anecdotally, everyone knows this is going on. This gives us the scientific proof of the hypersexuality that crystal meth can cause," said Kevin Garrity, executive director of the South Beach AIDS Project in Miami Beach.

The study, published in the journal AIDS and Behavior, found that crystal meth, a type of speed that is snorted or injected, arrived here from the West Coast in about 2000. The drug is supplanting ecstasy and other intoxicants as the drug of choice among substance abusers who frequent gay nightclubs, Kurtz said.

"If you're HIV-negative, at the end of it all, you [think], `God, I can't believe I just had sex with 10 men in two days or whatever,'" a mid-30s man told the researchers. "I wonder if I was safe to do that?"

"It does not matter who you are having sex with, near or whatever, as long as they are just as high as you and on the same thing. That becomes your overriding concern," said another recovering user, 38.

Michael Lopez Mata of Fort Lauderdale said he had snorted crystal meth for years, quit for a while but then lost almost everything, including his job as an art dealer, his money and his mate, after a friend talked him into injecting the drug early last year.

Now 33, Lopez, who was not part of the Kurtz study, said he fell deeply into the meth circuit, going to "party and play" events with men he barely knew or met in chat rooms. He said they would go to someone's home and spend the weekend taking speed and having sex.

"I felt lonely, like I lacked a connection with other people," Lopez said. "There are so many men out there doing crystal that it's easy to become a part and to feel welcome."

Few men at the parties used condoms, said Lopez, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1999.

"I no longer cared about having unsafe sex," Lopez said. "I sought out partners who would engage in unsafe sex. I was already infected and I found a whole subculture of guys who were already infected or didn't care if they would get infected."

Lopez kicked the drug in rehab earlier this year and is counseling other users, mainly at a new meth anonymous group that was started two weeks ago by Christopher Lacharite, HIV outreach coordinator at the Compass gay and lesbian center in Palm Beach County.

"Crystal has inundated both Broward and Miami-Dade for a couple [of] years now and it's now migrating up into Palm Beach County," said Lacharite, also a recovering user. "We need to do something." •

• By Eric Roland, Director of Education,

Legacy Community Health Services  [January 2006]

LIKE MANY CITIES in the United States, Houston, Texas has witnessed a growing problem with crystal methamphetamine over the past 10 years. What had largely been a rural problem in the pinewoods of East Texas, crystal meth slowly began appearing in the gay community, first on dance floors then into bars and bathhouses and eventually infiltrating internet chat rooms.

While other drugs, such as cocaine and marijuana, not to mention alcohol, are more commonly used than crystal meth, it is this highly addictive drug that appears to be driving gay and bisexual men into a downward spiral of unhealthy behaviours: sex marathons with multiple partners where condoms get in the way; week-long drug binges when eating and sleeping are unnecessary; and hours spent in internet chat rooms being “social” in a solitary space. Not surprisingly, Houston’s rising rates of syphilis among men who have sex with men and new diagnoses of HIV are often linked to crystal meth.

Two community-based organisations with a long history of serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community began noticing the impact meth was having on the mental and physical health of Houston’s gay and bisexual men:

• Montrose Counseling Center received an increased amount of gay and bisexual men seeking counseling and substance abuse treatment for meth addiction;

• Legacy Community Health Services

(formerly Montrose Clinic and The Assistance Fund) became concerned with the meth use among their HIV-positive patients, and were diagnosing more and more cases of syphilis and HIV linked to meth use.

In the fall of 2005, the two agencies began working together with the goal of increasing awareness about the drug to the GLBT community. Staff conducted interviews with current meth users, recovering meth users and those at high-risk of becoming meth users to determine what types of messages were needed to alert people to the dangers of meth use. In a focus group, participants said that a campaign should “de-glam Tina” and provide a message that meth is not “cool.” Other participants suggested shocking illustrations with a strong anti-crystal message.

In individual interviews, participants were shown the six campaign images from LIFE OR METH plus four images from HIV Forum’s Crystal Free & Sexy and asked which would motivate them to find out more information about crystal meth. Four of the six LIFE OR METH images ranked significantly better than the two other LIFE OR METH images and the four Crystal Free & Sexy images. [Click on PDF link, left]

As a result of the information gained through both types of interviewing, the two Houston agencies decided to use their funds to print the four most popular, and hopefully most impacting, images from LIFE OR METH. Each of the images has been printed on 4x6-inch 2-sided cards with resource information on the back side of the cards: Montrose Counseling Center promoting their drug prevention, treatment and relapse prevention programs, and Legacy Community Health Services promoting their HIV and syphilis testing programs.

The images have also been printed on 11x17-inch posters and full-page advertisements are running in Red Magazine, a local entertainment monthly magazine, through September 2006. Each of the images is being phased in, releasing a new image every two months, in hopes of keeping the campaign fresh and the messages new. Posters and cards are being distributed at local bars, clubs, bathhouses, adult bookstores, substance abuse treatment centres, community-based organisations, retail stores, restaurants, coffee shops and more.

Because LIFE OR METH is a great online resource for information on crystal meth, it is a pleasure to be using materials they produced, as well as be able to promote the services both agencies offer on the website. The agencies are proud to support lifeormeth.com and help keep this fledgling crystal meth website up and running.

• Crystal Meth Anonymous

Wednesdays at 8:15 pm

701 Richmond Avenue, Houston 77006

• Montrose Counseling Center

(713) 529-0037

Providing crystal meth prevention, treatment and relapse prevention programs specifically for the GLBT community.

• Legacy Community Health Services

(713) 830-3070

Free HIV and syphilis testing plus information on keeping you healthy.

• Revised December 6

AS THE COUNTRY with possibly the most liberal attitude towards drugs in the world - where you can smoke pot in regulated cafes and marajuana is legally used for medicinal purposes - you might expect crystal meth to have taken off in a big way in Holland by now.

On the contrary. In 2003, The Health Association in the Netherlands funded a major survey to determine the general drug habits of its citizens, and to establish the underlying reasons why they use. The results make for enlightening reading.

It revealed that, by far, the majority of Dutch citizens who consume drugs on a regular basis do so mainly at weekends, and for enhancement purposes as opposed to escaping reality, and that only a small minority suffer with addiction problems. Among the hundreds of people questioned about their drug habits, the general finding established that drugs are primarily used on a controlled basis and once a week at most, accompanying social and recreational activities like clubbing and dancing.

The researchers attribute this finding to a general feeling of freedom, contentment and peace of mind among the Dutch in general, who live in a liberal (i.e. open, non-competitive and tolerant) society that is largely free of oppression or government and media-channeled fear-mongering.

Furthermore, the easy availability and cheapness of drugs in Holland (Amsterdam being a major world centre for ecstasy production and trade) is no indicator of consumption, with people tending to moderate their usage even though a pill costs around the price of a beer.

Most respondents were disparaging or dismissive about hard drugs like heroin or crack cocaine, with few being aware of anyone they knew who use. Similarly, to date, the Amsterdam gay community has emerged relatively unscathed from the arrival of crystal meth into Europe. Despite the drug's limited availability within the local scene, it has not been widely embraced, and reports of meth-related casualties are few and far between. •