Sex and crystal meth: The rise of chemsex.

By Lateline’s Imogen Brennan

Taking ice and having sex is known as chemsex, party and play or PnP, and it’s part of a growing subculture in Australia.

Alex Bartzis did not want to take the drug crystal methamphetamine the first time. He was young and it was injected into him by other men.

“As soon as it was administered it was the most intense rush that you can ever imagine experiencing and I felt very horny instantly.”

Eventually he started using it more often and almost always for sexual encounters.

“I think you get in to this pattern and sex goes hand-in-hand with crystal. You associate it so strongly with sex,” he said.

“It’s associated with this really intense rush that it triggers an urge or desire to use crystal.”

Chemsex was the focus of a recent VICE documentary following the lives of gay men in London, and it is a subculture that has been growing in Australia over the past two years.

Its popularity follows a rise in smartphone dating apps for gay men, like Grindr and Scruff, and the availability of the drug ice — also known as tina, T, and crystal.

Nic Holas from The Institute of Many says it is a shift from the 90s, when going to nightclubs and taking ecstasy was common.

“Drugs like tina, crystal methamphetamine or G [GHB], are a lot more sexual-based, so that level of interaction is better suited in some ways to a domestic space where you can actually have sex,” he said.

Associate Professor of Gender and Culture Studies at Sydney Uni, Kane Race, says crystal has a specific sexual association for some users.

“Qualities associated with crystal meth for gay men include things like increased confidence, stamina, and it is certainly reported to make sex much more intense and pleasurable,” he said.

Jack (not his real name), came out in his 40s and started experimenting with various drugs for pleasure soon after. He still occasionally uses ice.

“You lose your inhibitions, you get an extremely sexual feeling straight away and that stays with you for a couple of hours and seems to ease the social side of the situation,” he said.

“All of a sudden there’s no awkwardness or need to go through the motions of an encounter like you do at a bar or party.

“I was also looking for thrills that would enable me to avoid the normal hard work of social interaction because I wasn’t comfortable, having come out so late in the gay community, going to pubs. So it was an easier way for me to become involved and to get over those hurdles.”

It took 10 years for chemsex to become a problem for Alex Bartzis, but after losing his job and contracting HIV he realised his life had to change.

“It was a long slow healing process and I realise now, I’ve done a lot of healing since then in the form of psychotherapy,” he said.

‘They’ll come in with a worn-out penis’

Health workers like Sydney GP Brad McKay say by the time someone realises they have a problem with their drug use, it is usually too late.

“Usually they come to me after a problem. If they’ve been having sex for a few days and they’ve been trying to keep up and they’ve been stimulated for three or four days, then they’ll come in with a worn-out penis because they’ve been having sex too much, much more than what the body can tolerate,” he said.

“I’ve had a lot of people who have come in with just hallucinations, psychosis.

“There can be these sort of cracks in their ability to have insight about what’s going on around them.”

Dr McKay says he has seen patients who have been raped after using drugs.

“I’ve seen a number of patients that have been taking methamphetamine and mixing that with GHB, and often people will have blackouts with that, they’ll lose time,” he said.

“Some people are being raped as well. There’s a few people we’ve been seeing who have been unconscious that have been abused while they’ve been asleep.”

Straight people are participating too

Chemsex is not isolated to gay and bi men.

Nadine Ezard, the clinical director at St Vincent’s Hospital’s alcohol and drug service, says straight men and women from all demographics have been known to partake.

“People who are marginalised, as well as people who have high paid and good jobs that are trying hard to hold on to those jobs as well,” she said.

“We really like to encourage people to come forward earlier with work or their relationships and that’s really difficult in a context where people are really stigmatised for the use of this drug.

“At the moment we see demonisation of this drug in the media. We see very frightening images. So that actually makes people less likely to come forward, partly because they don’t recognise themselves in those images.”

Watch Imogen Brennan’s report on Lateline at 9.30pm (AEST) on ABC News 24 or 10.30pm on ABC TV.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.

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