Saturday, September 7, 2019 10:46
The encounters are usually arranged through dating apps. Many people participate in long sex sessions enhanced by the use of synthetic drugs (GHB, methamphetamines, mephedrone), in which precautions to prevent sexually transmitted infections are often neglected. Chemsex (chemical sex) is already considered a public health problem in Europe and is raising concerns among doctors in Argentina and around the world.
“We need to take a serious interest in this because it’s a social issue that’s killing young people very quickly.” This warning concluded the presentation given to a packed auditorium by Frenchman Vincent Pelletier, director general of Coalition Plus (an international network of more than 100 organizations fighting AIDS and hepatitis), during the Fundación Huésped Scientific Symposium in Buenos Aires.
Pelletier is 53 years old and has been an activist for the rights of the gay community and people living with HIV/AIDS for over 30 years. “The issue of sex and drugs is an old one, it’s not new. But today we have a very different crisis,” he says, emphasizing that it takes on special relevance in light of “the new wave of HIV infections and deaths in Europe and other parts of the world,” especially among young men who have sex with men (MSM), among whom the practice of chemsex is much more common than in the general population.
The phenomenon, he explains, “began in North America in the late 1990s with crystal meth (methamphetamine) and developed in the 2000s. And in Europe it started with GHB, where there is a very complicated situation with cathinones (especially mephedrone), which causes many deaths in Central Europe. Deaths from GHB doubled in London, and in France there is concern about the spread of SLAM (injecting drugs, which adds the problem of sharing needles) among young gay men and trans people.”
These substances increase sexual arousal, intensity, and duration of intercourse, as well as causing strong disinhibition. “Sexual desire is so strong that people do things they would never do if they weren't under their influence,” says Pelletier. Cocaine, ketamine, ecstasy, or MDMA are used to a lesser extent.
Among the factors that promote the spread of “chemsex culture” (which has its own spaces, social links, practices, rituals and music) are the “democratization of access to drugs”, made possible by the decrease in cost (in two years, the price of crystal meth dropped from 250 euros to 150 per gram, and a gram of cathinones costs 18) and by the “Amazonization” of these substances that are easily acquired online, given that their formulation frequently changes, thus allowing them to evade controls (they are frequently marketed as “bath salts”, “legal euphoriants”, “plant fertilizer”).
Added to this are two phenomena that have grown significantly in the last 10 years: the widespread use of smartphones and geolocation apps, "which make it much easier to spontaneously organize private events, orgies, and the circulation of goods within these gatherings," and low-cost travel. "It's very easy to go to Berlin, Barcelona, or Paris for a weekend and have an orgy in an apartment with 20 people who don't know each other. That wasn't possible 20 years ago, when tickets cost 300 or 400 euros."
The director of Coalition Plus does not speak from prudishness, conservatism, or condemnation of the practice; on the contrary, he emphasizes the need to look at a rapidly expanding phenomenon from the perspective of harm reduction.
“It’s a very common practice. We have to acknowledge it, recognize that it exists. You can’t prohibit it, you can’t say ‘don’t use drugs’ or ‘don’t mix them,’ because that doesn’t work. The war on drugs is a complete failure. If it doesn’t work for the average drug user, it won’t work for drug users in a sexual context either. We need to educate rather than prohibit. Providing information can help people use products in the way they can be used.”
After describing himself as politically incorrect, he says that “uses aren’t always problematic.” “But it’s very easy to fall into problematic use, whether due to dosage errors (especially with GHB) or psychological or psychopathological factors. And the transition can happen very quickly: in just a few weeks, you can go from not using anything at all to SLAM (Sexually Ammonia-Associated Drug Use). This can happen very rapidly with significant professional, family, and social consequences,” he warns.
The consequences of synthesizing clandestinely produced substances are unpredictable and can be lethal, noted Silvia Cortese, a physician in the Toxicology Department at Fernández Hospital, during her presentation. “There is no control over the pills sold, for example, at electronic music parties. This means that ecstasy pills are often contaminated with cathinones (which have a very similar effect to phenethylamines), but they have a much slower onset of action. This leads users, unaware that they are not consuming ecstasy, to take larger quantities of pills in search of the desired effect.”
From: https://www.contextotucuman.com/nota/163244/chemsex-crece-el-uso-de-drogas-para-potenciar-el-placer-sexual.html