Club Drugs :: going but not gone

Rob Pitkens works as a bartender at Camac in Philadelphia’s Gayborhood, but a decade ago rather than serving drinks he was ordering them when going out to the neighbor’s local clubs. When he was a regular on the scene, Rob admits that he dabbled in the drug scene, but back then he says that drugs were everywhere - unlike today.

The bartender says that unlike during his club going days, only about 10 percent of the customers that come into his bar are under the influence of any kind of drugs. While he is correct to surmise that the use of club drugs isn’t what it was a decade ago, they are still a problem within the gay community.

The usual suspects

Declining use

"There’s been declining use since that time [2000-2002]. But there is a lag of collection of statistics," explained Dr. David Sack, CEO of Promises Treatment Centers.

It’s a sentiment that McNeely echoes, "It is still a significant issue throughout various areas of the country. While the volume has leveled off when compared to earlier this decade, it is still widespread."

But do LGBT teens survey differently? The answer is yes according to a 2006 Canadian study (as reported in the British-based Pink News). Researchers evaluated 600 students aged 13 to 19 at Vancouver and Victoria high schools and concluded14% have used crystal meth and other "club drugs."

"Drug use was higher amongst the 2.5% of students who identified themselves as gay or bisexual," the Pink News report continued. "Investigators suggested this could be due to the amount of use within their social networks, or ’problems with early self-identification as gay or bisexual.’"

While the hard statistics have yet to give concrete numbers about how widespread the problem is exactly, Sack says that by using survey data medical professionals know that the number of accidental overdoses and emergency room visits has declined in the last ten years.

To be able to tell who is using the drugs is also murky because McNeely says that the DEA doesn’t keep records based on sexual orientation. Because of this it is hard to be able to tell how wide spread the problem is within the gay community as compared to the population as a whole.

Part of what is keeping these drugs around is the ease in people’s ability to obtain them. Mike Nagar, who works for the Tao Group in club promotion in Las Vegas, admits that it’s not hard to score any of the club drugs within the city limits. While he doesn’t participate or condone the selling of drugs, Nagar does admit that it happens a lot in Vegas - and that people will come right up to him and ask if he is selling.

"I get asked for it. People are in Las Vegas and want to go all out," Nagar said about the mentality tourists have when they visit Sin City. "I never did it. I always valued my job too much."

The promoter says that ecstasy is the most requested, partly because of the thriving after hours club scene in the city. From his experience though, it’s pills that are more of a problem for clubs.

"If there’s something involving smoke, people wouldn’t do it in the club. There’s too much security. They’d be escorted out," Nagar explains. "Pills, that’s a different story."

Nagar made it clear that Tao has a spotless record when it comes to drugs. But to further demonstrate his point that it’s a problem in the city overall, news recently broke about the nightclub Prive getting closed down after it was found that the club knew about drugs being used inside VIP areas.

Debunking the myths

One of the problems that comes with combating club drug usage is trying to prevent younger people from even trying them. The average age range for these drugs is young adults between the ages of 18 and 35. Before prevention can even begin, debunking the myths about designer club drugs has to occur.

While crystal meth is the most addictive of the group, other club drugs are also addictive - despite what some users might think.

"Club drugs are safe when compared to perceived "hard" drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Club drugs are not addictive," McNeely said about the biggest myth of the drugs.

Another myth is one that can actually be one of the most risky. Dr. Sack explains that the way that some people test to see how pure their pills are can lead to false beliefs. He says that with ecstasy users can go up to stands and hold the pills under to tell supposedly how pure the drug is.

"It doesn’t measure how much. You can’t tell if it’s one dose or five doses," Sack said about the purity stands. He adds, "You can’t tell what contaminants are in the pill. It won’t show what contaminants are in the pill."

All of the experts agreed that increased education would help to continue the downward trend of the use of these drugs.

"Knowledge is very sketchy," Sack said about the information that is out there for the general public.

One of the people who are attempting to change that is Mike Rizzo, Manager of Crystal Meth Recovery Services at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. Rizzo works with LGBT adolescence between the ages of 18 and 24, many of whom believe it’s just a phase they are going through and don’t think about the consequences later in life.

"If you go into the chemistry of the brain, it doesn’t stop growing until 24 or 25. The front of the brain is the decision making part and the last to develop. You interfere with the development of that part of the brain," Rizzo explained about what the long lasting consequences can lead to in users.

McNeely makes it clear by saying exactly how dangerous these drugs can be, "All of these drugs have the potential to cause permanent physical damage ranging from death to brain damage and other serious neurological conditions. XTC, for one, raises a person’s body temperature to abnormal levels potentially causing heat exhaustion or cardiac arrest."

Club Drugs and unsafe sex

Being young and gay is difficult. Whether you are already out or struggling to come to terms with your sexuality, there are a lot of pressures. It’s because of these struggles that the young adults are the demographic that most widely uses club drugs. By taking a hit of ecstasy or smoking meth, the drug temporary lets the user step out of their own head and become less inhibited.

"Party drugs allow you to lower your inhibitions," Rizzo said. He describes gay men as being somewhat "socially inept" and said that the drugs "allow them to kind of blur these lines in order to interact" with each other.

But that intoxicated interaction can also lead to problems for the guys who mix the two. When drugs are involved, the chances of high risk activities, including unprotected sex, skyrockets.

"In gay men and lesbians, promiscuous sexual activity accompanies drug use. There is a high risk of unprotected anal sex," Sack said, adding that the behavior "seems to be specific to that community. In the gay community, sex plays a different role than [in the straight community]."

By taking the drugs, your libido will be increased but that doesn’t always translate to being able to achieve an erection. It is because of this that there is a common practice of mixing whichever drug they are on with Viagra in order to get or maintain an erection.

With usage leading to unprotected sex the inevitable also becomes an issue. A relationship has been found between crystal meth usage and HIV. According to Rizzo, people who use meth while having sex are five times more likely to contract the disease that those who are not on the drug. Furthermore, Sack explains that if HIV is contracted ingesting the drugs could do even more damage because of the effect it might have on the retroviral medications. Combining retrovirals and drug use could actually end up interfering with the user’s metabolism and creating toxic levels of the medicine.

But it’s not just meeting people inside the club that can lead to dangers. Taking the drug and then going onto the Internet looking for partners can also lead to problems. Rizzo recalled one client who met someone through the Internet and ended up being drugged and raped. To make things worse, his Internet suitor invited friends over to join in.

"The guy was there for a couple of days and raped by countless people," Rizzo recounted.

The party’s over

Eventually there comes a point during every party when you have to pay the band. For many people that time comes in the form of having to go to either rehab or seeking some form of treatment for their drug problem. Club drugs are harder to get people to realize that they have a problem with because they tend to be on a less habitual basis than other drugs.

"Club drugs are used more episodically. They might just say, ’ I did too much last night’ The role the drugs are playing might be underplayed," Sack said.

Dr. Sack says that when it comes to treatment programs, it’s not a one size fits all for the drugs either. Some of the drugs, like GHB, will require a detoxification period. Someone seeking treatment for ecstasy might be able to take part in an outpatient program. Ecstasy treatment also doesn’t have a withdrawal period which GHB does, requiring medicine and supervision.

Along with going through drug treatment, there is a mental aspect to getting treatment. At Promises, Sack uses a technique called motivational interviewing. He describes it as a non-confrontation techniques allows the user to process their motivation for using as well as how they have gotten to this point.

Rizzo insists that clients of his get a psychiatric evaluation as well when they come for treatment because many times when someone is using drugs it can be as a coping mechanism for something else that is going on.

When it comes to recovery, Rizzo admits that there is a high relapse rate with drug use, especially crystal meth. But he warns that you can’t judge whether a treatment w as a success solely on if there was a relapse by the patient or not.

"We look at success in various ways," Rizzo explained. One way is if there is a guy who can only make it 30 days before relapsing and then after treatment goes 90 days, that is considered a success. It also gives them something to work with and build from for the future to try to keep increasing that relapse period to be longer.

Part of the problem with once a person leaves treatment is that they might go back to their old ways because the life that they knew revolved around the drug. It is because of this that having a support group like Narcotics Anonymous is important to the recovery process.

- http://www.edgephiladelphia.com/index.php?ch=entertainment&sc=culture&sc3=&id=95726&pf=1

- http://www.promises.com/