Crystal meth is the dangerous new presence on the London gay club scene. Phil Baker says know the risks and facts before you dabble investigates
If you have recently gone out on the scene, cruised a sauna, surfed on Gaydar or flicked through a fagmag, you will be aware that the use of crystal meth as a recreational drug has changed from being the preserve of a few wealthy circuit queens to become the non plus ultra of sex and clubbing in gay London. Take a cursory look at Sunday's London Gaydar, you'll also see "chem-fuelled" has supplanted "Extra Large" as the key success factor to a successful profile. 'Chems' nowadays usually means, or includes, Crystal Meth. It's cool - it's hard to get - it's expensive - it's serious.
| Tony, Olympia: describes being given crystal first by a 'gorgeous' American in the Fridge: "At first I thought it was coke or K; initially I buzzed, was confident, chatty and highly sexual. A short while later I became very anxious, panicked and paranoidly rooted to the spot. Another bump cured that. This repeated itself for the rest of the evening. He took me home, No erection, so he fucked me, no condoms. No sleep, I chain-smoked compulsively until Monday. That was when the paranoia was worst, I felt withdrawn, isolated and miserable". |
Methamphetamine (aka crystal meth, tina, ice, shabu, base, billy, yaba, glass, crazy medicine) was developed by Nazi chemists during World War II to enable German soldiers to stay awake, alert and compulsively focused, while also rendering them emotionally sterile and quasi-psychotically aggressive. F16 pilots using crystal to keep themselves alert and awake over long missions during the recent Afghan conflict have attributed friendly fire deaths to the use of crystal! In fact, the US government has recently produced a new, safer pill called modenafil, which works in a similar manner.
SS storm troopers? Top gun jet-jockeys?.... You get the picture? You gotta be well 'ard to take this one! Snorted, smoked, slammed (injected), as a suppository, or ingested - the effect is stronger than amphetamines like speed or cocaine. The comedown - 'crash' - more intense.
A friend recently described drug-taking as having your life taken over and directed by a film director. Cocaine would be directed by Tarantino, Ecstasy by Busby Berkeley, and crystal meth would be Pasolini's masterpiece: it goes on forever and there are no depths of depravity that will not be plumbed.
| Stephanie, Notting Hill: I first used crystal in a sex club. It made it what it was supposed to be. Everyone became better-looking, hornier, obsessed with sex. I stepped out of life, had no restraint, no concept of time - I became addicted to the high. I saw people I knew had always had safer sex being unsafe, even sharing needles with people they knew were of different status desperate for a bigger, better sustained high. |
Gary Leigh, a frequent visitor to the US circuit party scene has documented the spread of crystal meth from a small area of San Francisco. It then swept across the USA. He writes: "it has ripped the heart out of the gay scene wherever it is found". So shocked was he by the sudden destructive impact of crystal in New York and elsewhere, he's since become a vocal campaigner against the drug. His website www.lifeormeth.com is an ongoing crusade to prevent what has happened on the US gay scene from repeating itself here. The stakes are high as are the profits. Already in Lambeth the police are beginning to take notice of this new arrival. Crystal is currently a class B drug which means it carries a possible sentence of five years for possession or 14 years for dealing. At up to £400 per gram it is hardly a street drug. As yet addiction has yet to be blamed for other crime but increased usage is being monitored.
Matthew Hodson of GMFA is cautious about overacting to a new drug on the scene and warns against the hysteria that attended chemicals like poppers or ecstasy. In his view the link between drug and risk-taking is not causal. Do crystal users bareback more or do barebackers use more crystal?
Two concurrent factors have boosted the impact of crystal and look set to do the same here in the UK and Europe: the advent of easily sustainable erections with Viagra (and the new kid on the block Cialis) and the advent of easily available sex through the internet (see Hard Drive into Sex, page 24). It's easy to see why allegations point to the accelerated risk of HIV transmission due to higher levels of unsafe sex induced by false feelings of invincibility. There's a compounded risk of friction tears on the condom due to the significantly prolonged sexual duration that crystal meth and Viagra together allow.
Two other things also become quickly clear about sex on crystal: it goes on for a very long time, up to two-four days, and is invariably unsafe and sexually passive. In LA, over 75 per cent of new HIV infections among men who have sex with men, are estimated to be crystal meth-related.
| Victor, Fulham: As with most mood-enhancing drugs, moderation is the key - with crystal more than any other - you must control it or it will control you. You only need the tiniest quantities for mood or event enhancement. Withdrawal symptoms afterwards made me feel depressed, not devastated! The more you take, though, the more catastrophic the comedown. The subsequent, immediate, effect on my T-cells was horrific. |
Dr Mike Youle, director of HIV research at the Royal Free Hospital, has seen a marked increase in crystal usage among his patients. He is concerned that most UK crystal users in the HIV community are relatively inexperienced with this new drug.
 Photo: Gordon Rainsford |
He cites the following that problems: dry skin, sores, sweating, numbness, dizziness, tooth grinding, impaired but incessant speech, ulcers, sleeplessness, nausea, exhaustion, vomiting, diarrhoea, hypothermia, and convulsions combined with chronic loss of appetite. In worst-case scenarios, users have cut themselves with knives.
Crystal meth is also very long-acting and far more immunosuppressive than HIV, leaving someone, whether HIV positive or negative, depleted for days on end. Illnesses following a crystal binge are therefore a probability. No clinical trials have been done on the direct effects of crystal on the immune system - but it is known that they are severe. One HIV positive man was reported to have lost 250 T-cells over one weekend binge in New York.
Grainne Whalley, a freelance drug advisor here, warned the police to start looking to the experience of their US counterparts where crystal now absorbs similar resources as crack cocaine. In her experience rather than a 'comedown Tuesday' from other recreational drugs, a crystal binge can take up to three weeks to fully recuperate from. Whalley's advice is: "if you have to use it, USE SOMETHING ELSE."
Chic, hard new drug? Well let's look at look at some celebrity users shall we? Adolf Hitler was the most famous crystal meth addict. But only for the last five years of his life...
| Crystal Meth is out there and is being used. If you are at a club and decide to take the risk, here are some damage-limitation rules to lessen its effects on your immune system and brain:
Resources: www.lifeormeth.com; www.kci.org/meth; www.aidsmap.com |
