Although CRYSTAL METH is infiltrating the LONDON gay scene at an ALARMING RATE, not much is being done to WARN BRITS of the DANGERS...

CHRIS, a 24-year-old who takes the odd ecstasy pill on a night out, was totally unaware of crystal meth when invited to 'party' by a group of guys he met in a South London club. Returning with them to a nearby flat, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. "Before the music was even turned on," Chris recalls, "the crystal came out. I'd never heard of tina, but everybody else was taking it so I took some too."

Chris had tried being passive on two previous occasions but hated both experiences. Yet, for the next twelve hours, each of the eight guys proceeded to penetrate him without condoms. "They were talking as if it was the norm," says Chris. "Maybe it is at these parties, but did I care at that moment in time? No way. All I cared about was getting as many dicks inside me as possible. We all became animals.

"Two days later it dawned on me the extent of what had occurred," he continues. "I spent a day in a sexual health clinic, and have to take 14 tablets a day for a month before I can take an HIV test. I would never have unsafe sex; that night I had unsafe passive sex with at least three guys that I know were HIV+. Just one bump of tina is all it takes, and you want more and more."

"Meth being shipped to the UK in large quantities"

Chris's story presents a disturbing insight into the sinister infiltration of crystal into London's gay scene. Anecdotal evidence points to much of the meth in London being shipped from the US direct to UK-based dealers, while flight attendents have been bringing in hundreds of grams of crystal a time in their hand luggage, which is seldom checked. One gay flight attendent has boasted of making almost £70,000 from his runs to London and other European cities.

To supplement their survival in one of the world's most expensive cities, a growing number of hustlers in the capital are known to be creating and feeding a growing demand in methamphetamine, entrapping today's unwitting young clubbers, like Chris, and tomorrow's grim statistics.

Increasingly, clubbers are speaking of being offered ketamine or coke by strangers, and then being unable to sleep for several days. "I was wired, depressed and near suicidal up to a week after being offered a hit of what I presumed to be ketamine at Beyond," says Dan, a London club scene veteran. "This seems to be how 'they' are creating their market - entrapping people by dispensing free bumps in the clubs and making them become dependent on them once they are addicted. It's evil."

Although quick to act following a spate of GHB and GBL overdoses over the summer - and despite the horrific lessons of North America - the London club scene has provided no response to the emerging threat posed by crystal. An epidemic of meth abuse in the London scene would prove potentially disastrous, forcing many clubs to close and resulting in hundreds, possibly thousands, of meth-related casualties.

Gaydar, the UK's leading online gay dating resource, has become a notorious breeding-ground for a significant minority of crystal abusers looking to 'PnP'. Increasingly, members are finding themselves introduced to the drug through such users they meet online, like Nick, who met a hustler through the site.

"His profile read I have tons of crystal - let's fuck all night!" Nick shudders. "What his clients - and the various resources he advertises in, like Boyz - don't know is that not only is he getting people hooked on his so-called wonder drug, but that the sex he engages in is 100% unsafe. When I tried raising the alarm with Boyz, they just didn't want to know."

Others have spoken of meth addicts they meet on sex sites like Gaydar and Men4Men turning psychotically aggressive and paranoid at the flick of a switch, proceeding to unscrew light bulbs and dismantle laptops - convinced that the room has been bugged - and even threatening physical violence.

Methamphetamine is currently a Class B drug in the UK, carrying a five year prison sentence for possession and 14 years for dealing. By comparison, ecstasy is Class A.

Methamphetamine is virtually unheard of in mainstream British society, but that could change if meth use in the London gay scene continues spiraling out of control and crosses over. According to a 2003 report, Hidden Harm, up to 350,000 children in the UK already have at least one parent who suffers from a serious drug addiction, primarily from the same league of dirty drugs like heroin and crack cocaine where meth belongs.

In an effort to stem the spread of meth before it spills over into mainstream society, Crimestoppers - 0800 555111 - is requesting that people contact them if they have any information about the supply and distribution of crystal meth in the London gay scene. All callers are guaranteed utmost confidentiality and impartiality.

UK Government "ignorant" of meth threat

New Labour's apparent ignorance, or, at best, disinterest in tackling the spread of methamphetamine is a cause for concern. The government-funded, 24-hour National Drugs Helpline [0800 77 66 00] offers little information on the effects of meth abuse, and has no understanding of the epidemic that has swept the States.

A spokesperson told LIFE OR METH that any decision regarding the allocation of funds for awareness and prevention programs would have to come "from the top" (i.e. Parliament). Similarly, the UK Government's new drugs harm-reduction website, www.talktofrank.com, barely mentions crystal meth.

When LIFE OR METH first alerted the charity-based Drugscope [020 7922 8623], in summer 2002, that crystal was starting to hit the London scene, it responded that, "without tangible (i.e. non-anecdotal) proof of a problem existing" its hands were effectively tied (a response, incidentally, echoed by AIDS charities The Terrence Higgins Trust and Gay Men Fighting AIDS, whom LIFE OR METH approached during 2003 to discuss the link between crystal and unsafe sex).

"Drugscope do not have a stance as such regarding crystal meth," a spokesperson told LIFE OR METH one year on. "Drugscope treats methamphetamine like most drugs in that we warn of its dangers as well as legal status, effects and prevalence. However, Drugscope are always keen to hear from people about their experiences and evidence of new patterns of use, etc."

Drugscope's stance towards crystal meth had not progressed as of November 2004, and LIFE OR METH is currently waiting to hear whether or not THT and GMFA have changed their position regarding the now undeniable link between crystal meth and unsafe sex.

David

The lack of a sufficient hands-on approach from the major UK drug prevention organisations may lead to more casualties like 'David'. Seemingly overnight, David went from being a successful financial adviser to ending up on a life-support machine and being destined to spend the rest of his days dependent on others. Friends remember David as being level-headed about drugs, but crystal gradually pulled him in and soon pushed him over the edge.

"My lasting memory," recalls Chris, a close friend, "will be of David in the middle of the Trade dance floor in bright clubbing trousers, carrying light sticks, dancing to hard techno. An amazing transformation - especially for someone who did not like clubs. The crash that we all saw coming finally happened, and now it's been left to his friends to pick up the pieces. I'm sure he never intended for it to turn out like this, with his friends now having to make decisions about his welfare."

The spread of meth throughout the London gay scene is being compounded by the rise in popularity of after hour clubs (it is now possible to party continuously from Friday evening through to Monday morning) and the proliferation of saunas around the capital, where the noxious white smoke from meth pipes wafts indiscriminately through the cracks between cubicle doors as they are shared among the clientele.

A study by The UK Gay Men's Health Network has shown that up to 42% of gay and bisexual men in the UK admit to having attempted suicide. The report, titled Social Exclusion, found that gay men suffered proportinally more mental health problems than the general population, despite progressive legislative changes which have improved the integration of gays into the mainstream. Gay men with such problems are most at rick of addiction if exposed to crystal meth.

Speed psychosis

The British National Health Service is critically under-funded in the sectioning, treatment and rehabilitation of people suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and is woefully ill-prepared to deal with an influx of new cases that would arise from widespread meth abuse. The Guardian newspaper has disclosed the "scandal" of people suffering mental illnesses generally ending up in jail; up to 70% of inmates in British prisons are known to have mental health disorders.

'Tim', a Londoner in the advanced stages of crystal addiction - having de-wired his apartment walls and hallucinated bugs crawling beneath his skin - was persuaded, reluctantly, to visit a psychiatrist. He was medically evaluated as suffering from speed psychosis, a condition which triggers paranoid schizophrenic symptoms, yet Britain's arcane laws governing this mental illness meant that Tim could not be sectioned, and he was returned into the community without treatment.

Sectioning can only be authorised with the sufferer's consent, yet long-term crystal abusers become severely mentally deluded, extremely irrational and volatile, neither comprehending nor accepting that they have a problem. Even were users to be admitted forcefully, doctors wield the power to section a patient for no longer than 72 hours, while a court order can only be approved for 30 days. After that, the sufferer is released back into the community and left to fend for himself, his head still in turmoil and his crystal craving stronger than ever.

In September 2003, Kevin Morris, president of the Police Superintendents' Association, told delegates at their conference in South Wales that the UK Government is "passing the buck" for tackling drug-related crime to the police, and that it is Prime Minister Tony Blair who needs to solve the problem, having pledged as far back as the 1997 election to tackle the causes of crime by boosting spending on drug rehabilitation.

"Waiting until a drug addict commits a crime is totally unacceptable, and waiting for nine weeks for treatment to begin is insane," Mr Morris said. "If you look at what's available at the moment to get drug rehabilitation, you must commit a crime or be rich enough to pay for it yourself."

UK "in grip" of AIDS epidemic

Corresponding to the rise in meth use among gay men in the UK is the disturbing increase in new HIV diagnoses. 1,735 were recorded among gay and bisexual men during 2003 - the highest level since tests became widely available in the 1980s, and blamed primarily on a rise in high-risk sexual behaviour. The Terrence Higgins Trust said the figures confirmed that the UK was "in the grip of a serious HIV epidemic".

Dr Mike Youle, director of HIV research at the Royal Free Hospital in North London, has noted a marked increase in crystal usage among his patients and its cancerous affect on their viral load, and has publicly expressed concern that most crystal users in the UK who are HIV+ are oblivious to the significant dangers the drug poses to their health.

At the end of June 2004, 31,870 men who have sex with men had been diagnosed with HIV in the UK. Syphilis and gonorrhoea infections have also risen significantly.

A report earlier this year by a House of Commons health select committee showed that the National Health Service is buckling under a record number of people - heterosexual and homosexual - with sexually transmitted diseases. The report accused the NHS of failing to address or even recognise the current STD epidemic, and pointed out that Britain's sexual health clinics are ill-equipped to cope, turning away hundreds of patients each week. The government responded in November with news of the biggest sexual health campaign for 20 years, including a £50 million advertising programme and a £300m clinic modernisation programme.
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Education

With no professionally-sponsored awareness or prevention campaigns underway, and no zero-tolerance initiative in force on the part of the club promoters, it is left to the gay community to educate itself about crystal and the associated sexual health risks. Britain's gay news-stand magazines, including Attitude, and London listings magazines like QX, have covered crystal meth in some depth, but much more needs to be done to raise awareness of the dangers of using meth.

How long before crystal meth enters and ignites UK mainstream society, or is catapulted onto front page news by a meth lab explosion in the heart of a major city like London, causing untold carnage and civilian casualties? Is that what it must take for the British government and drugs agencies to finally be spurred into action? o

IMPORTANT NOTICE: In order to continue and expand on our work, London-based LIFE OR METH is in the process of registering for charitable status with the Charity Commission, and is therefore obliged to appoint two Trustees. This will require minimal involvement and no financial or legal risk on the part of the Trustee, who would preferably have professional skills beneficial to the organisation. If you can volunteer, please email trustees@lifeormeth.com. Thank you.