Gays' Rising Meth Use Tied to New HIV Cases | LA Times

[Ediacara]

Gays' Rising Meth Use Tied to New HIV Cases

By Lisa Richardson and Lee Romney, Times Staff Writers

For seven years methamphetamine helped Ron Conner believe he was the talented, sexy, bold man he had always dreamed of being. The 37-year-old graphic artist would have sacrificed everything to hold onto that glamorous vision of himself, and ultimately, he nearly did.

"I lost my house, two cars, my checking and savings accounts, my piano, my boyfriend...." he said.

"I had sex with guys I knew were positive, who said they were positive, and I just didn't care," Conner said.

Although Conner, who is sober and working again, did not end up HIV-positive, such is not the case for many gay meth users.

More at the Los Angeles Times

[bemildred]

1. Does this affect non-gay people too?

Or is meth only bad for gays?
:puke:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. That's what I'm wondering, too.

I live in smalltown, Texas and we've seen a rise in HIV among Meth users.

Why don't you hear, "Rural Texans Rising Meth Use Tied to New HIV Cases"?

[bemildred]

6. Can't hold down two min-wage jobs without a "boost" can you?

I remember people taking "crosstops" by the handful when I worked
blue-collar back in the 70s, just trying to stay awake.

It's not just small town, crank is everywhere. SE Asia is going nuts
with it too. Like the fellow says below it was well known to be nasty
back in the 70s, but it seems nobody cares now. "Bring it on" as our
peerless leader says.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. I agree

You can't single out anyone or any region.

[NorthernSpy]

9. Must find minority scapegoat for meth crisis!

Problem: blacks have largely ignored the lure of methamphetamine. Meth users and traffickers are overwhelmingly white.

A decade or two ago, it was common and largely acceptable to promote the idea that the crack epidemic was "about" blacks as a group. But it would be totally unacceptable to promote the idea that the meth epidemic is similarly about whites as a group; in this case, the racial angle must be played down at all costs. The Bad Thing must always belong to other people.

Solution: displace as much blame as possible onto a nonracial minority. That's where gays come in...

[radric]

11. hmm..

did you actually read the whole article? You know, where they talked to Gay activists and AIDS/HIV workers? Or did you just assume this was singling out the Gay community?

[noonwitch]

13. That's true in Detroit

Crack still rules here, although there has always been a core group of heroin addicts over the years, too.

Overall, alcohol is the biggie, though.

Haven't heard of any meth going around, and the PS workers in this area haven't been discussing babies born exposed to it.

So if people aren't making/buying/using meth in Detroit, why are they limiting how much cold medicine we can buy at Target?

[mrbassman03]

14. Because they can say: "Look, our plan works!"

As in... We torture prisoners to stop terrorism, and see, no terrorism so far!

[d.l.Green]

16. It's only bad for gays- and gay sex spreads disease...

they're getting what they deserve, yada yada yada...

It's the drugs, stupid!(I'm not calling you stupid, bemildred) Nothing else! What was the common thread in the first diagnosed cases of "aids"? Gay sex and drugs. Forget the obvious of considering the drugs, it must be the gay sex. Now it also includes growing number of unwed straight singles (living in sin, of course). Drug taking produces symptoms, and now if you look at the ever-expanding definition of "aids"- which doesn't even include "hiv" anymore- almost any symptoms are diagnosed as such- as long as you fit the sin model: gay sex and partying, straight sex out of marriage, Black or Hispanic and sex-active(gay and straight), Black and living in Africa...

Funny all those children born for the past 25 years, where's the plague????? Guess they were all concepted immaculately... and their fathers never had sex with other men- right.

[bemildred]

19. Yeah, I know, it annoys me.

Speed is bad for anybody. I snorted crank once, it was like
the scene in Star Wars where the hyperdrive kicks in. Scared the
living shit out of me, took forever to unwind. The idea of conflating
it with sex, gay or straight, is ludicrous, it is the anti-Viagra.

Conflating it with gays and sex is a BIG mistake, but I don't think
our "leaders" give a shit, they just want a new social boogie man
now that it's not OK to bash "Negroes"; so gays and drug users are the
new untouchables in American society, meanwhile our kids pay for the
lack of honest education and treatment.

[Warpy]

2. Speed kills

Shit, we knew that in the 60s, and meth use died out for a lot of years.

The drug war has made the more benign drugs harder to transport and sell, leaving amateurs with chemistry setups to create much worse drugs like meth to take up the slack.

Humans have used psychoactive drugs for various purposes since the first time we got hungry enough to try a new plant and go "Whee!" Psychoactive plants are the planet's/god's gift to us, and to declare them illegal is the height of hubris.

The drug war doesn't work. The only "successes" of this one is denying pain patients relief and making recreational users turn to much worse drugs.

Big woop.

[not fooled]

18. Other "successes" of the drug war:

--countless tax $$ wasted

--ready excuse for politicians to pass draconian laws destroying our civil liberties

--funding and fueling the judicial/police/prison industry

--giving pols a platform to act self-righteous and pontificate that they are acting to preserve "morality"

[tedzbear]

4. This is such OLD news.

HIV+ and HIV- gays using meth? Duh.

[xchrom]

5. yes, but we haven't heard enough preaching about how

bad gay people are compared to everybody else.
:eyes:

[tinanator]

7. bad gay people?

If I were subject to all the pressures and prejudice that gays face, theres no telling what I would turn to for relief or escape.
-of course the only gay crank monkey I ever met was a real jerk.

[KurtNYC]

8. They admit this is junk science

Scientifically linking meth use to the spread of disease is difficult because multiple factors come into play. But studies in several cities show that a growing number of HIV-positive men report recent meth use.

But why do they not feel sleazy publishing this story? Plus the very guy they make the lead of the story DID NOT get HIV. They simply say he had sex with positive partners -- they DON'T SAY whether it was safe sex or not. So they imply that it wasn't. So in an article about AIDS they fail to address central issues.

Junk science ---> junk journalism

[d.l.Green]

17. That's right, multiple factors...

if they take meth then they most likely party. If they party they most likely take other drugs and drink and smoke and everything that goes along with it. And don't forget, the circuit crowd is still using "poppers" now known as video head cleaner and available even in health food stores.

Safe sex? (see Post#16 above)

[makhno]

12. Meth is the new crack

Yesterday the crack baby, today the meth-crazed queer. The government is always in need of a devil drug to keep the populace trembling and the DEA and BOP budgets growing.

[Maat]

15. Social Worker - San Bernardino (Meth Home) - from '93 to 2000.

Conclusion: meth is the Devil's drug. Spent seven years seeing the variations of child (and adult) torture that the human mind can come up with while abusing that drug. No, the Drug War won't do it. We have to educate and educate and then educate some more about the dangers of the drug - before someone uses it. The drug seemed to be so highly addictive - so very quickly - that my words fail me when attempting to describe it. It seemed to cause intense, intense pleasure that first try - and then intense, intense pain when the body didn't get it thereafter. I watched human beings turn into walking skeletons on it.
We need many, many rehab. clinics, with qualified staff, to deal with this problem. It is easy to set up a lab, and they set up quickly one after the other. I digress. I saw this coming - gave helping people my best effort.