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Popperstoppers
was originally a campaign in the UK led by HIV positive gay
men to achieve the ban on the retail sale of poppers and was
managed and directed by Cass Mann, CEO of Positively Healthy
(POSH). It is now incorporated into the main stream work of
POSH, following approval and support for this work from the
Secretary of State for the Department of Health.
POSH
has worked in close collaboration with The Royal Pharmaceutical
Society in the successful prosecution in 1996 at Crown Court,
in front of a judge, of a retail outlet selling the poppers
derivative amyl nitrite. This resulted in the UK-wide ban
of amyl nitrite and its disappearance from sale
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We also worked in tandem with The Department
of Health's Medicines Control Agency from 1996 until 2001
to secure a prosecution of manufacturers of the remaining
two poppers derivatives, butyl and n-isobutyl nitrites. A
prosecution was eventually brought in March 2001 at Crown
Court, before a judge and jury, against two manufacturers,
but this proved unsuccessful. The judge in his summing up
stated however that this case should not have been heard by
a jury, but dealt with by a governmental medical and scientific
scrutiny committee as it was too technical and complex for
lay people to understand.
Therefore today in The United Kingdom it is
legal to purchase poppers sold as butyl and
n-isobutyl nitrites, but illegal to purchase
as amyl nitrite.
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At the world's first
scientific congress on the use of poppers, held in 1994 in
Washington, convened by The National Institutes of Health
and chaired by Dr. Robert Gallo, Dr. Gallo - who had since
the beginning of the AIDS epidemic been trying to discover
the cause of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), the so called "gay
cancer" that introduced AIDS to the world - made the
following statement on the use of poppers by HIV+ gay men:
"The primary
cause of KS in gay men could be their use of poppers".
The congress ended
for a demand for the ban of poppers worldwide immediately.
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| To read the full document
outlining some of the scientific data, supporting Dr. Robert
Gallo's and Positively Healthy's demand for the immediate removal
of poppers from sale, click here. |
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| Dr. Kary Mullis, Nobel prize
winner for chemistry, has won the only Nobel prize in
the field of AIDS research for his discovery of the PCR
test which led to viral load counting and the widespread
use of DNA sampling technology in forensic criminology
and science. It has always perplexed us as to why the
co-discoverers of HIV, Dr. Luc Montagnier and Dr. Robert
Gallo, were never awarded Nobel prizes for their discovery
and we reprint here two articles by and on Dr. Mullis
which illustrate how and why he was awarded the only Nobel
prize ever awarded in the field of AIDS research. We are
grateful to Dr. Mullis and investigative reporter Celia
Farber for permission to reprint the articles. Article
one, article two.
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John reviews and reports on
the world's first conference on Poppers convened by the US
National Institutes of Health at which HIV co-discoverer Dr.
Robert Gallo stated that "The
primary cause of KS in gay men could be their use of poppers".
This article must be read.
Current Research
The poppers-HIV
connection
Inhaled isobutyl
nitrite inhibited macrophage inducible nitric oxide by blocking
NFkappaB signaling and promoting degradation of inducible
nitric oxide synthase-2.
Inhalant nitrite exposure
alters mouse hepatic angiogenic gene expression.
Production of macrophage
IL-1beta was inhibited both at the levels of transcription
and maturation by caspase-1 following inhalation exposure
to isobutyl nitrite.
Cytotoxicity by nitrite
inhalants is not related to peroxynitrite formation.
Correlates of suicide attempts
in an open cohort of young men who have sex with men
Young gay men who suffer
sexual abuse more prone to HIV
Inflammatory macrophage
nuclear factor-kappaB and proteasome activity are inhibited
following exposure to inhaled isobutyl nitrite
Clinical review of inhalants
Comparison of sexual behaviors,
unprotected sex, and substance use between two independent
cohorts of gay and bisexual men
Gay men report high rates
of unprotected anal sex with partners of unknown or discordant
HIV status
The AIDS dilemma: drug
diseases blamed on a passenger virus
Non-injection substance
use correlates with risky sex among men having sex with men:
data from HIVNET
Increased tumor growth
in mice exposed to inhaled isobutyl nitrite
Nitrite inhalants: history,
epidemiology, and possible links to AIDS
Histories of substance
use and risk behavior: precursors to HIV seroconversion in
homosexual men
Continued high-risk sex
among HIV seropositive gay and bisexual men seeking HIV prevention
services
[Transverse study on sex
behavior associated with HIV transmission among homosexual
men in Catalonia]
The chemical bases of the various AIDS epidemics: recreational
drugs, anti-viral chemotherapy and malnutrition - Paper written
by Peter Duesberg, Claus Koehnlein and David Rasnick. Click
here to read 
(604kb)
Dr Harry Haverkos published a paper in 2004 on the KS-poppers
link- click
here to read
(154kb)
An exhaustive list of Poppers references has been received
from Hank Wilson, the man who got 'poppers' banned in the
USA - click to access.
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