Ignore the drugs; focus on the unprotected sex
Alcoholic Myth-of-the-Month: (a possible half-truth) Unprotected sex is the root cause of the AIDS epidemic among gays.
“We are concerned that widespread alarm about crystal meth may divert attention from what must remain the chief focus of H.I.V. prevention”safe sex. Our recent online survey of more than four thousand gay men from all over America found that sixty-four per cent of those who reported having anal sex without a condom in their last encounter with a new or casual partner did not use drugs.”
So said Mary Ann Chiasson and Sabina Hirshfield of Medical and Health Research Associates of New York City in a letter to the editor in the August 1, 2005 edition of The New Yorker. Granted, the instigation to engage in unprotected sex is not always methamphetamine”but it’s usually one drug or another. In fact, most meth addicts start with alcohol and marijuana at age 13 and follow it up with meth use at an average age of 19. They are almost always other-drug addicts first. And, UCLA studies have found that if a recovering meth addict drinks alcohol, he or she will relapse into the meth addiction 100% of the time. Not maybe, not sometimes: will.
Alcoholism confers a sense of invincibility. Addicts are like children: they think nothing can harm them and they’ll just get lucky. The trouble is, on many occasions nothing goes wrong”and in the mind of the child and addict alike, the sense of invincibility is reinforced by repeated success. This feeling is a result of damage to the neo-cortex, which impedes rational thought processes.
Only one in three gay and bisexual men who test positive for HIV at a major Los Angeles clinic last year admitted to using meth. However, most who regularly engage in unsafe sex are probably addicts of one stripe or another. Until the addiction is arrested, the unsafe sex continues. Meth addicts, until the drug takes its inevitable toll on sexual performance, are by far the most promiscuous of all. In fact, the number one reason for use is the initially incredible sex, which includes delayed orgasm, hypersexuality and risky behavior. Reason does not suffice when dealing with a damaged neo-cortex, which shrinks 1% per year with heavy use of meth. We’re trying to educate the basal ganglia. We can preach all we want”non-addicts may listen, but addicts can’t. Chiasson and Hirshfield suggest that if drug use stopped tomorrow, sexual transmission of HIV would continue. Yes, but just like crime, the problem would become miniscule compared to current levels.