► Drugs And Hiv, a problem here?

[vikdoc]

The link between taking recreational drugs and unsafe sex is a well known one abroad. Crystal Meth seems to be particularly bad in terms of its allure in the gay community abroad and the way it encourages people to let down their guard while having sex.

Sometime back in a GB meeting a guy from New York asked what the situation was here in Mumbai and my initial response was to say that its not a problem because we don't have that sort of drug scene here. And I think that's correct, but that shouldn't be grounds for complacency. It can certainly start and perhaps we should be asking ourselves if there are any signs that its happening? And what could we do about it?

[vikdoc]

To answer my own question, I don't see much evidence from the parties or hearsay that drugs are big in Mumbai yet. But this could be because of the reasonably effective (I think) policing that GB does.

But one does get a sense that there are guys who take drugs outside GB spaces, and that some of it is coming from foreigners working in India, or regularly passing through (like aircrew) or NRI guys/Indian guys who've lived abroad for a while and picked up the habit and see it as part of the gay scene, so they are trying to do it here too.

Just to make it clear what I'm talking about, I'm not referring to grass (marijuana) and its variants, or poppers, as much as more hard core stuff like coke, E, special K. Some of this is still too expensive to be part of the scene much, but some are available in prescription form and are getting abused that way.

One thing that I find worrying is that a trend could be emerging of guys setting up after-parties after a regular party, and that's where the drugs and unsafe sex could happen. And they lure cute, impressionable young guys at the first party to come to the after party with a promise of drugs and that's where they could have unsafe sex. Have people heard of this happening?