Aug. 7, 2002
All publications Front Page Nightspots Blacklines En La Vida Out! Resource Guide Current WCT Issue	DRUGS (Continued)   If you manage to use club drugs without getting messy, pin a gold star on your forehead and dance on. But for all the newbies, I'm going to blow the cover on the myths of club drugs: "They're no worse than drinking."  I won't defend tailgate party buffoons or drunk drivers. But at least when you consume alcohol, you consume. You can't easily get polluted without filling your stomach. That takes time, during which you can feel yourself getting drunk, and stop. Pills, powders, and chemical slurps of who-knows-what are just too potent for an incremental high. "You don't understand the bond I share with the guys when I party." I had a young assistant who spoke of the band of brothers he belonged to, and the spiritual place he had found with them that would always elude my drug-free grasp. Then one Sunday, Miguel woke up in a strange home, with no memory of how he got there, or whether he'd had sex the night before. He called on his "band of brothers" to come drive him home, but it wasn't "convenient" for any of them. He had to rely on a drug-free oldster to bail him out. So much for the clan. "I deserve a break from all the stress my life brings."  Guess what? "Tina" (crystal meth) won't help you find your way out of your problems. As a heavy partier once admitted to me, "Drugs start as a solution to temporary problems, but then they become your permanent problem." "Partying keeps me away from sex. When I'm high, I just want to dance." Actually, guys who use club drugs have more unprotected sex with more anonymous partners than guys who don't use them. Ecstasy and Special K may inhibit your erection, but drug-induced impotence doesn't curb desire. It just makes horny bottoms. A Florida study I co-chaired found gay guys who used X, K, or GHB were two-to-three times more likely to have been screwed that month by a non-monogamous sex partner not using a condom. More recently, one-quarter of gay guys surveyed at circuit parties admitted to "overuse" incidents. The American Journal of Public Health reported that during the most recent weekend, 74% had used some drug other than alcohol. Of these guys, 28% had anal sex. Some did it with boyfriends, but 10% had unprotected sex with a stranger of opposite or unknown HIV status. And the more drugs guys took the more unprotected sex partners they had. Our community is getting messy. I got a call from an ex boyfriend recently. We used to be terrifically compatible in bed, but prone to arguments anytime we weren't horizontal. The problem was that our weekends reduced to the mind-numbing boredom of watching Charlie pop and snort his way to chemical happiness. I had once said to him "I don't care if you do E, X, or K. I just don't want you doing them around me. And stay away from crystal meth, or you're going to be up all night doing crazy things.'" Well, he called to say I'd been right, and now he's HIV infected. He'd stayed HIV negative for 39 years until a drug-charged high pushed him over. Next I heard from George, an old friend who had once stunned me into silence by explaining that he had paid for college by starring in porno movies. George swore that condoms were faithfully used. Sure enough, when I tested him, four years in the industry hadn't brought him anything worse than oral herpes. Then he moved to Los Angeles, experimented with GHB and Special K, and woke up one night to find someone screwing him on a bathroom floor. He tested HIV positive a couple of months later. I'm not claiming that all drug use leads to these dark corners. But just like every drunk driver thinks he still has control until he crashes his car, every gay party boy defines "too much" as whoever is doing more drugs than he is. That's why I'm chemically unfriendly. Stephen Fallon is the President of Skills4, Inc. a consulting firm offering workshops on gay lifestyle and health issues. See www.Skills4.org or e-mail him at sfallon@skills4.org. SOURCES: Castrataro G and Fallon S.  Project M Survey. Ft. Lauderdale: Broward County Health Department, 1998. Mansgergh G. "The Circuit Party Men's Health Survey: Findings and Implications for Gay and Bisexual Men." American Journal of Public Health 2001; 91: 953-958. In related news, The Washington Blade reports that "the pace of the once fast-moving RAVE Act has slowed ... . Opponents of the Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act would prefer to see the bill scuttled, but at the very least they are seeking changes. ... [They say] the act would unfairly hold business operators responsible for the actions of some patrons."
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