WESTSIDE / COVER STORY : Positively Risky : Sex-Enhancing Drug May Expose New Generation of Gay Men to AIDS

Tony, who is HIV-positive, will never forget the night he went home with a bearded, glassy-eyed man he met in a Hollywood sex club. He ended up in the man’s “dungeon,” engaged in an ugly sex fantasy.

Tony said he took part only because the man gave him a fix of crystal methamphetamine, a form of speed.

“I was prey for whatever kinds of sexual fantasies (the man) had,” said Tony, a recovering crystal meth addict who asked that his real name not be used for this article.

Such stories are becoming increasingly common among gay male drug users in Hollywood and West Hollywood. The problem is that crystal meth, known as a “sex drug” because it is said to intensify the sexual experience, is believed to be promoting compulsive sexual behavior--and HIV infection--among gay men.

Crystal meth is used by heterosexuals and homosexuals alike, but experts worry that the drug may increase the risk of AIDS in a new generation of young gay men because it breaks down inhibitions that might otherwise prevent them from practicing unsafe sex.

When high on crystal meth, the experts say, users may be more likely to have unprotected anal or oral sex, engage in sex with multiple partners or use dirty needles if they inject the drug rather than snort it. Such use of crystal meth as an aphrodisiac, they say, is more common among homosexual men than among heterosexuals.

“There is considerable concern on the part of AIDS and substance abuse experts that we have a major problem here,” said Michael Gorman, research scientist at the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute at the University of Washington. “When you have a high proportion of the population that is HIV-infected, plus sexual (activity), plus needle use, then you have a very potent combination.”

The problem is being taken seriously in the gay community.

Crystal meth use “is definitely on the rise among gay men,” said Lorri L. Jean, executive director of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Community Services Center. “It is the drug of choice among the gay male population that uses drugs.”

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Amphetamines, or speed, stimulate the central nervous system, increasing the heart rate, suppressing the appetite and raising blood pressure. Speed was popular in the 1960s and ‘70s among motorcycle gang members, truckers and college students, who used it mostly to stay awake while driving or studying.

The amphetamine known as crystal meth--so called because of its clear, flaky appearance--is highly addictive and can cause side effects, including impotence, paranoia and psychosis.

Though usually snorted or injected, it is sometimes taken through enemas, according to users.

The drug affects brain neurotransmitters associated with pleasure and excitement, according to Steve Shoptaw, director of the Los Angeles Addiction Treatment Research Center, a federally funded research center based in West Los Angeles.

Even though crystal meth generally makes it more difficult for male users to maintain an erection, they still feel sexually aroused, experts say. They engage in oral sex and other forms of sexual activity--often with multiple partners--before achieving an erection and orgasm, then start the cycle over again. The sexual activity can continue for up to 12 hours, Shoptaw said, further increasing the risk of HIV infection.

“It boggles my mind. . . . Sex on crystal is very intense,” Shoptaw said. “There’s an addiction to the intense nature of sex while on the drug.”

According to a 1995 Centers for Disease Control study, 43% of homosexual Los Angeles County men who had AIDS and a history of injecting drugs named “stimulants/amphetamines” as their drug of choice. By contrast, only 10% of heterosexual men with AIDS and a history of intravenous drug use named amphetamines as their primary drug.

Among non-injecting users, 11% of homosexual men preferred speed, compared to 5% of non-injecting heterosexual men.

On the Westside, crystal meth is found in highly charged sexual arenas such as some West Hollywood and Hollywood nightclubs, sex clubs, bath houses and “after-hours” crystal parties where users gather in private apartments and get high until the morning hours, according to users and drug counselors.

Managers at some gay-themed establishments say they do not tolerate drug use.

John Ferry, owner of the Hollywood Spa bath house in Hollywood, says that drug use at the spa is prohibited, and if detected results in the expulsion of the user. He added that the club has rigorous identification procedures and an aggressive HIV/AIDS education program focusing on safe-sex practices.

“If they are loaded, then they are asked to leave,” Ferry said. “We don’t think that (crystal meth) helps people make decisions in their best self-interest. That is not the kind of behavior we want in this club.”

Police say that over the past five years, methamphetamine-related arrests and seizures have increased dramatically in the Los Angeles area.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department Narcotics Division, crystal seizures citywide have increased more than fivefold over the past year, from 410 pounds seized in 1993 to 2,527 pounds in 1994. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1994, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Narcotics Bureau seized a total of 46 pounds of methamphetamine, compared with 37 pounds in 1993.

“The general trend here is that meth popularity is increasing. It has been steadily increasing over the past few years, whereas (cocaine use) has stabilized,” said Sgt. Rudy Lovio, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Narcotics Bureau intelligence officer.

Locally, demand for the drug in the gay community appears to be a factor, police say.

“There is an upward trend in use in West Hollywood, which happens to be heavily populated by gays,” said Sgt. Paul Scauzillo, of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s narcotics unit in West Hollywood. It reflects “a growing trend across the country,” he said.

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Crystal meth has become popular in part because it is cheap and readily available. The drug is manufactured principally in California, so dealers do not need to raise prices to cover the cost of smuggling it in.

With a $40 quarter-ounce of crystal meth, a user can get high for up to 16 hours. As its use has spread, the drug has acquired a certain cachet.

Crystal meth “is in vogue,” Lovio said. “There is an overabundance of methamphetamine here in the Southland--you don’t have to search for it. It is no longer a working-class, biker drug. It has transcended socioeconomic lines and ethnic lines.”

Experts say there has so far been no formal study on the relationship between speed use and HIV infection in Los Angeles County. However, a public-health study conducted in Seattle in 1993 and published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, a national scientific journal that tracks AIDS, found that the prevalence of HIV infection was three to four times higher among heterosexuals and homosexuals who reported injecting amphetamines than among those who injected other drugs.

Of the 3,039 injection drug users studied, 40% of gay and bisexual men named amphetamines as their overall drug of choice, compared with less than 5% of heterosexual men and women. Gay and bisexual men also accounted for the highest incidence of HIV infection among the drug users.

The Seattle researchers also found that the association between amphetamine use and HIV could “result from riskier sexual behaviors” on the part of amphetamine users, not just from intravenous needles.

Amphetamines may have “stimulating and disinhibiting effects on sexual activity leading to hypersexuality, impaired judgment, atypical sexual behavior, prolonged intercourse, enhanced sexual pleasure and casual sex with non-regular partners,” the researchers wrote.

Tony, who is 30, fears he may have infected others with HIV during what he calls his crystal “rages.”

“That really is a tough thing to live with,” he said.

Tony first tried crystal meth at a party in West Hollywood in 1990, shortly after moving there from South-Central Los Angeles. Soon, he said, he became a “gypsy”--an “out-of-control party guy.”

In rare moments of clarity while high on crystal meth, Tony said, he sometimes asked his lovers if they were HIV-positive. If they were, there was a sense of kinship, he said, and they’d have unprotected sex anyway. But even if they were not, he added, safe sex practices were never taken seriously.

At crystal meth parties, Tony and other users say, social gatherings that initially seem ordinary turn into reckless orgies, lasting until the early morning hours.

“Crystal is absolutely demonic,” Tony said. “It takes you over and puts you in a state of mind” that makes a person do things they normally wouldn’t do.

Crystal, some users say, makes sex too good to think about anything else. For those who are not infected, or don’t know if they are, the threat of AIDS sometimes seems distant.

Scott, a 30-year-old gay man who says he uses crystal meth and formerly sold it for a living, claims he has never taken an AIDS test. He says he simply does not want to know if he is carrying the virus. Crystal meth makes him more adventurous and daring during sex, said Scott, which is not his real name.

“You just don’t care about (condoms),” the West Hollywood resident said.

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Many gay crystal users, according to Shoptaw of the Los Angeles Addiction Treatment Research Center, become so addicted to the intense nature of the sex they have while on the drug that recovery becomes doubly difficult.

“Someone may want to return to a sex club and will find themselves with crystal meth in abundance,” Shoptaw said. “They will be triggered to drug use from the sex, not from anything else. The sex can arouse cravings for the drug.”

Indeed, Kael Conner of West Hollywood says that because he missed the kind of sex he had while on crystal meth, he used the drug 20 days ago after going without it for eight months.

“Sex without speed feels really weird,” said Conner, 31, who is trying again to give up the drug. Conner says that although he has always practiced safe sex, he contracted HIV through a dirty needle. “Sex on speed is paradise,” he said.

It also helps him escape social taboos.

“I stick a needle in my arm so I can forget about the world telling me it’s not OK to sleep with another man,” he said, poking an invisible needle into his arm, his green eyes blazing. “The only thing that makes me relax when I have sex with men is when I’m high. It’s hard for me to have sex sober.”

Jean, the director of the gay and lesbian center, says such sentiment will only disappear when the gay community no longer feels stigmatized.

“It’s little surprise that drug use is higher among the gay-bisexual community than in the heterosexual community,” Jean said. “That is a direct response to living in a homophobic society.”

On another level, crystal meth appears to serve as an escape from fear and anxiety for those with HIV and AIDS, according to Ferd Eggan, AIDS program coordinator for the city of Los Angeles.

“The other night at a public forum, a man with AIDS told me that he occasionally uses this drug for a feeling of bodily well-being and excitement in the midst of a life-threatening disease,” Eggan said. “If we have any humanity at all, we have to recognize that (crystal meth use) is a coping strategy that some may not approve of, but it is not a mindless descent into criminality and chaos.”

Efforts have been made to address the problem quickly. Twelve-step Crystal Methamphetamine Anonymous meetings are being held in West Hollywood and North Hollywood and two more are planned for Silverlake and North Hollywood. Meanwhile, a formal study on the connection between AIDS and speed similar to the Seattle research is being planned for Los Angeles County.

Also, some Westside AIDS support agencies have planned forums to discuss crystal meth and how to fight it.

Some experts say AIDS education should include a discussion of how to have sex safely while using drugs. Though such an approach would probably be attacked as unrealistic, they say, the gay community would be responsive.

“The gay community has responded to the AIDS crisis in an exemplary way,” Eggan said. “This newest development is something that the community will take seriously.”

For those already seeking to kick crystal meth, it’s simply a matter of self-preservation. Said Conner: “I don’t want to die a gay junkie with AIDS.”