New York: No Man Is a Crystal Meth User Unto Himself

Use of crystal methamphetamine has spread from New York's gay club scene to affect a wider cross section of gay men, particularly young ones. Gay Men's Health Crisis received very few hot line calls about meth two years ago; it now gets about five calls a day concerning the drug. Three years ago fewer than half of GMHC's new drug counseling clients reported crystal as their primary drug problem; this year 80 percent do.

There is no firm scientific data showing crystal meth is fueling the rise in HIV infection among US gay and bisexual men. Still, anecdotal evidence from New York doctors suggests the drug plays a role in from 50-75 percent of new HIV cases in the city. And research has associated crystal with high rates of unprotected sex.

Dr. Steven Lee, a New York psychiatrist with a specialty in treating meth addicts, said, “Some of my patients talk about how they feel on crystal meth as akin to being robots programmed with the sole purpose of doing more crystal and having more sex.”

Dan Carlson, who with Dr. Bruce Kellerhouse co-founded HIV Forum NYC, and others involved in HIV prevention partly blame crystal for the 18 percent rise in nationwide HIV infections among gay and bisexual men since 1999. Some 300 people attended a July public meeting the HIV Forum held. It featured personal testimony from the audience and panel members about crystal's negative affects on the gay community. In June, the forum began an anti-crystal ad campaign appearing on Chelsea phone booths to coincide with Gay Pride celebrations. However, not everyone supports such measures.

“It's great they're paying attention to it, but they're not reaching the people they need to reach with all this finger-wagging,” said Bill Henning, editor-in-chief of the gay magazine Genre. “It's the same sort of antisex, antidrug argument that's been going on in the gay community for years.”

Back to other news for September 3, 2004