Meth
Use Elevates HIV Crisis Among Gay
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cameron McWhirter; Jill
Young Miller
April 18, 2004
Gay men who used crystal methamphetamine, also called "Tina" or "Crystal," were twice as likely to have unprotected sex as non-users in a recent CDC study in San Francisco. And crystal users were more than three times as likely to be HIV-positive as non-users in a recent San Francisco Department of Health study.
Crystal abuse wears down the immune system, making it more dangerous to those with HIV, and also adversely interacts with HIV medications, according to research. A minority of gay men use the drug habitually during sex with multiple partners. For these men, meth use has become a part of sex.
Gay organizations in San Francisco and New York have started public awareness campaigns to warn about meth use and risky sex. The problem that reaches to the Deep South. However, in Atlanta, which has the region's largest gay community, AIDS groups have not yet started methamphetamine education campaigns.
"From what I am hearing from friends and from clients, it is a lot more extensive than any of us would like to think, especially in the club scene. And it leads to people throwing caution to the wind - when they know better," said Michael Dubin, an Atlanta counselor whose clients are all gay men.
"They go from feeling like wallflowers to feeling like supermen," said John Ballew, an Atlanta therapist with a majority of gay clients. "Safe sex messages are just forgotten."
"This drug has become almost normalized in the community," he said. "My professional take on it is the problem is just as bad as [in] New York or San Francisco or Los Angeles."