Sex, meth and Internet spark new AIDS fears
Pastor Dale Morgan
Sex, meth and Internet spark new AIDS fears*
17 Jan 2007 19:45:51 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Matthew Verrinder
NEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters) - An hour after speaking at a Crystal Meth
Anonymous meeting about the benefits of sobriety to dozens of other
recovering addicts, Charlie was alone in his Chelsea apartment, logged
onto the Web site Adam4Adam.com.
He cruised the site's profiles of muscular gay men who want to meet for
sex while high on methamphetamine, and found his match: a 50-year-old
man from Manhattan's Upper East Side who liked to "slam" the drug, or
inject it directly into the bloodstream.
"I blew two-and-a-half years of sobriety in a few hours," said Charlie,
who did not want to give his last name. "All I had to do was log on, and
it just so happens that it was right there."
In New York, thousands of gay men use the Web sites Adam4Adam.com,
Manhunt.net and Craigslist.org as an easy way to meet for sex marathons
at underground orgies while high on the addictive stimulant.
Similar sites exists in other cities. The phenomenon -- while affecting
only a small part of the gay community -- underscores the spread of meth
from the U.S. rural areas where it gained an early foothold.
Health officials worry that the ease in using the Web to find meth --
which erases inhibitions and judgment and creates a voracious sexual
appetite -- and people to do it will fuel a resurgence among gays in
infections of HIV, the virus which causes AIDS.
About half of new patients diagnosed with HIV by counselors at
Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, New York's largest private clinic
for gay men, said that meth or alcohol was a factor, said Gal Mayer, the
center's medical director.
Men who are high on meth are four times more likely to have unprotected
sex than those who aren't, according to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
"These men use meth to escape and forget about their positive HIV
status," said Michael Siever, director of San Francisco's Stonewall
Project, a counseling program for gay and bisexual men who use crystal
meth. "They assume everyone else is positive at these parties, which
isn't the case, and it leads to more infections."
Also, Siever said, some long-term meth users have built up tolerance to
the drug and must inject it to get high -- some using dirty needles
which lead to more HIV transmission.
About 45 percent of the men who sought treatment at Stonewall in the
last year admitted they had injected, Siever said.
The online code for mixing sex and meth is PNP, shorthand for "party 'n
play."
The sites are free and allow members to search for partners based on
proximity, HIV status, preferences in appearance and sexual practices,
whether or not they use condoms and which drugs they use.
"You can literally do searches so that you're within a $5 cab ride from
someone," said Bill Stackhouse, director of the Institute for Gay Men's
Health at the Gay Men's Health Crisis, a group that fights AIDS in New
York City.
Some men, like Charlie, use the sites because they are relapsing after a
period of sobriety and don't have a dealer. Others do not want to risk
buying drugs on the street or are hoping to parlay sex into free drugs.
"It's the fast-food version of sex and drugs," said Siever. "You can
order in."
Also logged on to the sites, silently waiting behind a profile that
includes a headless photo displaying his fit chest and abdominal
muscles, was Terry Evans, an outreach worker for Positive Health
Project, a nonprofit that seeks to stem the spread of HIV in New York.
Evans was trying to convince meth users to have safe sex. A message
quickly popped up in his inbox from user "bkpdnyc," a 32-year-old man
from Manhattan who said he likes Evans' body and soon admitted that he
parties with "Tina," a nickname for meth.
Evans tried to string the man along to coax him to come in for
one-on-one counseling. But before Evans could reveal his identity, the
man logged off. Evans sent him a message anyway with the nonprofit's
mission and phone number.
"Initially a lot of them feel it's a bait and switch and they get kind
of angry, but more than half come back and ask questions, and after that
a lot of them come in," said Evans, who noted about a dozen men have
come in over the last year.