Mike Sessa, of the Crystal Meth Working Group, helped organize a town hall meeting in Washington last month to discuss the local drug scene. (Blade photo by Henry Linser)
La Clinica blames staffing, facility hurdles for trans program delays
Official says non-commercial ‘cruising’ not prosecuted
advertisement
advertisement
|
ELIZABETH PERRY
Friday, March 23, 2007
Despite several years of outreach and educational campaigns aimed at curtailing crystal meth use, three new studies indicate that the drug remains popular among local gay men and that users have a high rate of HIV infection.
Crystal Meth Working Group conducted an informal survey and outreach project during January and February of 420 gay club-goers and web users in Washington. Of those, 291 had never used meth while 129 had. Michael Sessa, president of the D.C. Center for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender People and co-chair of the Crystal Meth Working Group said he is concerned about those who have tried the drug.
“Out of 420 surveys, 69 percent have never done meth,” Sessa said. “That’s a nice number but the flip side is a concern. If 69 percent have never done it, then 31 percent have done meth at some point in their lives. That’s one in three people. That’s a big number. And one in 10 have done it in six months.”
The Crystal Meth Working Group is an information clearinghouse and outreach program for Washington residents seeking resources and services. Its survey was non-scientific. In addition to it, there were two other recent studies looking at local meth use. One analysis used data from Whitman-Walker’s Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study and was conducted by Georgetown University epidemiologist George Plankey, in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. His results will be published next month in the Journal of AIDS, but an abstract was made available to the Blade.
Another study is a summary report on statistics of clients seeking treatment for drug addiction. Data was compiled by the Whitman-Walker Clinic’s Addiction Services program and released last month.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agency, the market for crystal meth in the city has traditionally been limited, with crack cocaine being the most common drug on D.C.’s streets. Scientific and anecdotal data show crystal meth first became popular in 2003 and its use has grown more common ever since.
“It’s continuing to rise from year to year,” said Amy Smith, clinical program manager at Whitman-Walker Clinic Addiction Services. “I don’t think it’s an epidemic. It’s found its place here for a while, just like crack did.”
Addiction services professionals and law enforcement officials are concerned that crystal meth is spreading from the club culture to the general population. Lt. Alberto Jova of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit, said the drug hit the area eight to 10 years ago, but most significantly in the past five years.
“There have been no full-fledged labs found in the city,” he said. “There have been mini or portable labs or evidence that people were trying. Labs can be found as close as Montgomery and Prince William counties.”
Literature from the National Drug Intelligence Center describes meth as a clear synthetic stimulant that resembles small shards of glass or shiny white rocks. It has a higher purity level than powdered meth and produces a longer-lasting high. The drug, sometimes called Tina, ice or glass, can be snorted, smoked, injected or administered via enema or “booty-bump.”
Experts said meth can cause rapid heart rate, increased blood pressure and damage to blood vessels in the brain that can lead to stroke. Users who inject have an increased risk of contracting HIV, Hepatitis B and C and other blood viruses.
Meth is a psychologically addictive drug that makes chronic users feel they cannot live without it. The National Drug Intelligence Center said users experience episodes of violent behavior, paranoia, anxiety, confusion and insomnia. The drug can even induce ongoing psychotic flashbacks for months or years after the user stops taking it.
Young gays at risk
In the Whitman-Walker study, all the clients using amphetamines were men, more than 75 percent were white and 82 percent identified themselves as gay. The average age of users seeking treatment was 42.
Sessa said younger gay males between 14 and 22 are most at risk for drug addiction because they are dealing with sexual orientation issues as well as the continuing growth and development changes that come with late adolescence. The working group is conducting outreach to gays in this age range.
“Most of the time it’s not the people themselves calling,” he said. “It’s their loved ones. I get lots of calls for support groups for people indirectly affected — friends, lovers, family members.”
Anecdotally, Sessa said the working group surveys indicated meth use was most prevalent among gay males in Washington clubs and bars. He said he also knows about it from personal experience.
“I’m someone who goes out to bars and events,” he said. “I’ve had three boyfriends who became addicted to crystal meth and got HIV. In D.C., crystal meth use is fused with sex. In the Midwest, it may be associated with soccer moms and lawyers, but in D.C., it’s used significantly in the gay male population and is tied to sex.”
The Whitman-Walker study looked at drug use trends among those seeking treatment from the clinic’s Addiction Services program from 2000 to 2006 at its Elizabeth Taylor Health Center. Also included in the numbers were those seeking treatment at the Max Robinson Center and the suburban Maryland clinic prior to 2005.
‘Systemic’ problem
Although most clients came in seeking treatment for alcohol and cocaine abuse, the number of people coming in for crystal meth treatment increased from under 10 percent in 2000 to 19 percent in 2003 and more than 22 percent in 2005.
Smith said Whitman-Walker is looking at new ways to address the crystal meth problem, providing more services and preventive programs. Staff members there are also partnering with the Crystal Meth Working Group to educate the public about the dangers of meth use, but she admits more needs to be done.
“The problem is systemic and we need to reach every area of a person’s life,” she said. “Once some people are exposed to it the flood gates are open and it’s hard for them to manage controlled use. We have to reach the friends who are using and not having problems with it.”
The Whitman-Walker study reports that in 2006, 73 percent of clients with amphetamine use were HIV positive.
Anecdotally, Smith said that many of the younger men who were infected were between 22 and 25 years of age, although there were also some who were middle-aged. When asked if they practiced safe sex when they were using crystal meth, HIV-infected clients usually answered no, she said.
“You would assume the young men got the safe-sex message growing up,” she said. “But this just speaks to how this drug can put a person in a position where they don’t think about safe-sex practices.”
‘On top of the world’
Plankey, of Georgetown, was looking to see if a link could be found between meth use and heightened HIV infection rates for gay and bisexual men using data collected over a 23-year period for the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study. The MAC study is ongoing and collects data on the natural and treated histories of HIV infection in gay and bisexual men in Baltimore, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles.
HIV-negative men who were enrolled in the MAC study from 1984-85, 1987-91 and 2001-2003 were identified, with meth and popper use established. Plankey wanted to see how long it took before some of the subjects were diagnosed with HIV. His findings adjusted for co-variables, including race, location, educational level and number of sex partners.
Plankey said that even with just one sex partner, a crystal meth user’s risk of being infected with HIV triples. Those who use crystal meth and have receptive anal intercourse with multiple partners are 14 times more likely to contract HIV.
“Crystal methamphetamine is a very potent psychomotor stimulant,” he said. “What it does in men and women is it lowers your inhibitions so you have more pleasurable sex, it lasts longer and is more forceful and potentially anally traumatic. Because of this, you do a lot of things you wouldn’t normally do. You have these guys who are speeding along, feeling on top of the world thinking they can do anything and they usually do.”
|
 |
