- Title: USA: Crystal meth sets back AIDS fight in the gay community
- Date: 3rd December 2006
- Summary: (L!3) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA USA (FILE) (REUTERS) LOS ANGELES SKYLINE
- Embargoed: 18th December 2006 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Health
- Reuters ID: LVAD3Z0DBVSKUSIBVLRFJ0T3R6OA
- Story Text: Unprotected sex, multiple partners and crystal meth are a deadly combination that experts and many in the gay community say is proving to be a major setback in the fight against AIDS.
Just ask Mark Leydorf. The 38-year-old actor and writer is HIV positive and living a full life. But that wasn't always the case. Leydorf has been clean and sober for six and a half years, but spent the darkest three years of his life addicted to crystal meth and going through dozens of sexual partners.
The bad news doesn't end there. Leydorf is just one of a growing number of men that has turned to the drug after already being diagnosed HIV positive. The isolation and loneliness that are experienced as a result of living with the terminal disease have created a new trend, driving many gay men to turn to Tina in search of comfort.
Tina is just one of the popular terms for Methamphetamine, which also goes by crank, chalk and ice. The party drug that has plagued many communities across the U.S. is now hitting gays in urban areas more than ever. Highly addictive and readily available, Leydorf describes the drug's lure.
"Crystal obliterates any sense of who you are supposed to be and taps into, when you take crystal you tap immediately into...I shouldn't say you, I should say I. I would tap right into some deeper part of me, some need that I felt wasn't being addressed on a conscious level. So I could just be a total slut with somebody and not worry about what they thought, not even think about what they thought," he said.
Leydorf worked in the financial industry when he began using crystal meth. He says when he first started using he spent his Friday's planning the weekend, when he would participate in drug and sex parties with his friends. He explains that the drug's highly addictive quality leads many users to go on days or weeks long binges. The speed keeps the addicts up for days, consuming more and having rampant sexual encounters. At his lowest, Mark says he would have sex with just about anyone, and revolved in a circle of other partiers with the same mindset.
Health care workers say the drug's addictive qualities are not their only concern -- they believe the drug can also compromise immune function and interfere with AIDS medications.
Jay Landato, the Executive Director of the Callen Lorde Community Health Center, which treats many patients who are HIV positive and use crystal meth, says the medical concerns for HIV positive users is grave.
"Crystal will harm people living with HIV, cause their drugs to be less effective. There is evidence for that and growing evidence that it will allow the virus to replicate and it diminishes the efficacy of the drugs," he said.
Landato also says health professionals serving New York's gay community are seeing cases ranging in young men between 20-30-years-old -- as well as older men in their 40s and 50s. While the draw is different, there are some common threads. For the older men, it is often mid-life crisis. He explains that they have seen friends and loved ones die and are seeking a sense of intimacy they've lacked for years. While for younger men, it is an escape of a different sort.
Mark Laydorf explains how as a 24-year-old professional, he turned to crystal.
"Sometimes that pressure of this virus on the community builds up and builds up and people just say fuck it! I don't want to talk about this. This virus is one of the many things that's keeping me from finding the love of my life -- it's not gonna keep me from having fun with you tonight, you whoever you are, you and you and you if it's a group of people. I'm not going to let it enter this discussion. Crystal has been ideal for that in our community."
More than a decade ago, widespread adoption of safer-sex practices by gay men and significant drug developments nearly stabilized the U.S. AIDS epidemic. Death rates plummeted by two-thirds and the level of new HIV infections dropped.
Today however, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 40,000 people become newly infected with HIV in the U.S. each year. Since 2002, the estimated number of AIDS cases nationwide has increased yearly. In 2005, transmission increased among gay men yielding 2000 more new cases than there were the year before. New cases involving gay men and injection drug use was also up.
While there is still no cure, cocktails of HIV drugs can keep patients from developing AIDS. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says the combination of crystal meth and other drugs, is causing an alarming rise in HIV cases.
"It is certainly unfortunate that now there is a rise in the use of crystal meth, methamphetamine, even together with sexual enhancing drugs like viagra. And that really decreases dramatically the inhibitions of people who are putting themselves at risk of getting infected. And that is something that is just not acceptable and it is growing in its impact and its resulting in alarmingly more infections than we would really be comfortable with."
Fauci says urban areas like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles tend to be hit the hardest.
In Los Angeles, Lonell Callum is trying to break his addiction to crystal meth. Callum became HIV positive about halfway through his 13-year addiction. Clean for less than one month, he is now living at the Van Ness Recovery House, a drug treatment facility, hoping to squash the habit he says ruined his life.
Lonell says he contracted HIV through unsafe sex and not through the use of unsterilized needles -- although he did use them.
He points out that under the influence of crystal meth he made reckless choices, having unprotected sex with men he knew were HIV positive.
"As I got more and more involved into it, I got really deep into it, I had more and more unprotected sex. You know I would ask, and didn't care."
Lonell worked in Palm Springs as a personal trainer at a gym. He used meth every day for the last two years, which ultimately cost him his job and his home.
While there is still a lack of hard data connecting crystal meth use with HIV infection, studies have found that gay men using the drug are less likely to use condoms and more likely to have multiple, anonymous partners.
Among gay men, anecdotal evidence of its use and destructive path is mounting: Five years ago there were no support groups for people trying to kick the drug at New York's gay and lesbian community or health centers. Today, Crystal Meth Anonymous is growing and now averages 28 weekly meetings in Manhattan.
Use of crystal meth is also growing in the wider community. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse it is America's fastest-growing drug threat. It can be manufactured using common household products such as iodine and drain cleaner. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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