New Year's Party Warning

by Jack Siu

365Gay.com Newscenter in Toronto

(December 27, Toronto) Gay community medical experts are warning New Year's Eve raves could be dangerous, even fatal.

According to a new study gay men are more likely to use recreational drugs and have risky sex when they attend raves or circuit parties.

The findings suggest a need for special HIV prevention strategies that are targeted toward men who attend circuit parties, according to the study's authors.

"Circuit parties are an important and often positive influence on the gay community,'' Dr. Grant N. Colfax of the San Francisco Department of Public Health says.

In the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes Colfax writes that after taking into account drug use, attendance at circuit parties itself was not linked to high-risk sexual behaviour.

But, Colfax said, "a substantial proportion of circuit-party participants report high-risk HIV-transmitting behaviours, often in relation to substance abuse.''

He and his colleagues surveyed nearly 300 gay and bisexual men in the San Francisco area. The men answered questions about their drug use and sexual activity during the weekend of a circuit party in San Francisco, an out-of-town circuit party weekend, and two weekends spent in San Francisco without attending a circuit party.

Most of the men reported using at least one recreational drug when attending an out-of-town circuit party, Colfax and his colleagues report, with 80% taking Ecstasy, 66% taking ketamine, 43% crystal methamphetamines, 29% the so-called ''liquid Ecstasy'' GHB, 14% taking the impotence drug Viagra, and 12% taking amyl nitrates, also known as "poppers.''

At San Francisco circuit parties, however, the men used certain drugs, including ketamine and crystal meth, less frequently than when out of town. And they were significantly less likely to use drugs--with the exception of alcohol--during weekends in San Francisco when they went to a dance club instead of a circuit party. On weekends when men did not go out to a club or a party, most did not use any drugs, the researchers found. [I wonder why -- anyone ever heard of peer pressure?]

As was the case for drug use, risky sex was most common at out-of-town circuit parties, where 21% of HIV-positive men and 9% of HIV-negative men had anal sex without a condom with a partner whose HIV status was unknown or different from their own.

Colfax's team suggests several possible reasons why men are more likely to have risky sex at out-of-town circuit parties. Increased drug use may contribute, as may the anonymity possible at an out-of-town party. In addition, the availability of new sexual partners at an out-of-town party, as well as an absence of regular partners, may lead some men to have unsafe sex, the authors report.

``There needs to be a greater focus within the public health community on the high prevalence of club drug use in relation to high-risk sexual behaviour,'' according to Colfax.

And since Viagra was frequently used by men at circuit parties, ``physicians should provide safer sex messages'' whenever prescribing the drug, he noted.

Let's see if I've got this right.

Dr. Colfax says: "Circuit parties are an important and often positive influence on the gay community."

Even though: "a substantial proportion of circuit-party participants report high-risk HIV-transmitting behaviours, often in relation to substance abuse.''

that includes 80% on Ecstasy, and almost half -- 43% -- on crystal meth

while a full 30% of the participants are barebacking -- 21% of whom are already HIV+

Earth to Dr. Colfax!

an institution that encourages its participants to use dangerous street drugs and have unsafe sex is NOT a "positive influence on the gay community."

It's a destructive influence on that community

And instead of writing articles which treat it like some sacred relic, what you should be doing is looking at a culture that tells people that drug use is cool, unsafe is okay, and anal is the cat's pjs, and working to UNDERMINE that culture and replace it with one whose values more commonly match that of the rest of the human race:

drugs are bad, health is good, and sex is about genitals, not about anuses

like Chuck Tarver says: the Safer Sex Establishment has become a major part of the problem

davidwmnet

12-27-2001

Re: Our Safer-Sex Establishment at Work

Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees !!!!!!!!!

Mind boggling, simply mind boggling. How could any rational person conclude that unprotected sex, multiple partners and recreational drug use are "good" or as "Dr. Colfax" states "Circuit parties are an important and often positive influence on the gay community"

Well sure they are. They are indeed a "positive influence", for acquiring life-threatening diseases, the break up of good and health relationships, the moral and ethical values of a society and of course they are a great way to meet new "friends" !

WTF, give me a break. What really scares me is that these guys believe the shit they report. You tell me, would you jump off a bridge if everyone else was or someone in "authority" said it was okay?

Think about what YOU can do to CHANGE THE CULTURE OF DEATH - THEN DO IT !!

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step". When are you going to start walking?

Your safer-sex establishment at work:

Part I In praise of circuit parties.

Part II How to enjoy your butt during casual gay sex.

Part III Syphilis at the White Party.

Part IV Frot advocate Bill Weintraub should be put in jail.

Part V Bug-Chasing, Barebacking, and the Safer-Sex Establishment.

Part VI Anal + Meth = Death.

Part VII Brit buttboy guilty of infecting boyfriend; HIV activists protest.

AND