Recreational drug use

Recreational drug use features

• Crystal meth and London gay men – examining the evidence

  Last month the medical journal The Lancet published a news feature, describing an increasing number of London gay men who take methamphetamine (crystal meth), including a significant...

  From:  News

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  Harm reduction and human rights

  Harm reduction for injecting drug users, including clean needles and syringes and opiate substitution therapy, is extremely limited in some regions of the world. Harm reduction...

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  The lonely drug: crystal meth in the UK

  There are increasing signs of problematic methamphetamine use amongst some gay men in the UK. Gus Cairns reports. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Mental health and HIV: a clinical review

  This issue (part one of two) covers the wide range of mental health problems people living with HIV experience....

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

Recreational drug use news from aidsmap

• Crystal meth and London gay men – examining the evidence

  Last month the medical journal The Lancet published a news feature, describing an increasing number of London gay men who take methamphetamine (crystal meth), including a significant number who inject it, often at 'chill-outs' and sex parties. There are ...

  11 February 2013 | Roger Pebody

• Patients with pain have poorer engagement with HIV care

  Pain in people with HIV is associated with an increased risk of missed appointments, investigators from the US report in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. The original intention of the study was to see ...

  22 August 2012 | Michael Carter

• Earlier deaths in people with HIV due to drugs, alcohol, co-infections, poorly controlled HIV - not rapid ageing

  Patients taking antiretroviral therapy have the same mortality risk as individuals in the general population, according to Danish research published in the open-access journal PLoS One. However, this was only the case when the patients responded to treatment and ...

  12 December 2011 | Michael Carter

• Fracture rates higher in patients with HIV

  Fracture rates in patients with HIV are higher than those in the general US population, investigators report in the online edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. Rates increased between 2000 and 2002, and then remained broadly stable until the ...

  15 March 2011 | Michael Carter

• Treatment interruptions explain higher HIV viral load in patients with depression and those who use stimulants

  Inconsistent use of antiretroviral therapy is the main explanation for the higher viral loads observed in HIV-positive patients who are depressed or who use stimulant drugs, US investigators report in the February 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired ...

  08 February 2011 | Michael Carter

• HIV infections soar amongst Eastern European 'street youth'

  As many as 40% of young people living on the streets in some areas of Eastern Europe are infected with HIV, according to doctors, activists and UNICEF representatives presenting at the Eighteenth International AIDS Conference in ...

  20 July 2010 | Mara Kardas-Nelson

• Vienna declaration calls for science-based drug policies

  Three leading scientific and health policy organizations this week launched a global drive for signatories to the Vienna Declaration, a statement seeking to improve community health and safety by calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence ...

  30 June 2010 | Press Release

• Feasible to recruit and retain meth-using gay men to programmes treating dependence to the drug

  It is feasible to recruit and retain methamphetamine-dependent gay men in a pharmacologic drug-treatment programme, US investigators report in the April 24th edition of AIDS. The men participating in the study reduced their risky sexual behaviour, ...

  30 April 2010 | Michael Carter

• Counselling as well as drug treatment needed to reduce risky behaviour in opioid-using youth

  Extended treatment with buprenorphine/naloxone helps reduce levels of injecting drug use and sexual activity in opioid-using youth, according to US research published in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. However, therapy ...

  30 April 2010 | Michael Carter

• Drug interactions still common and often unrecognised in patients taking HIV treatment

  Clinically significant drug interactions are common amongst patients taking antiretroviral therapy, and often are not noticed by HIV doctors, UK investigators report in the May 15th edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. Researchers from Liverpool recorded clinically ...

  23 April 2010 | Michael Carter

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Recreational drug use news selected from other sources

• Recreational cocaine use linked to conditions that cause heart attack

  Recreational cocaine users may have higher blood pressure, stiffer arteries and thicker heart muscle walls than non-users -- all of which can cause a heart attack. The Australian study is the first to document some of these cardiovascular abnormalities in seemingly healthy cocaine users long after the immediate effects of cocaine have worn off.

  13 March 2013 | Science Daily

• HIV and the Power of Escape

  For the men of the AIDS Generation when death was an inevitability, sex and substances provided an escape, not only from the realities of AIDS, but also from the stigma and discrimination experienced by so many of us growing up as gay men.

  10 March 2013 | Huffington Post

• Matthew Todd: The roots of gay shame

  News that HIV rates in gay men remain stubbornly high is depressingly predictable. There is an epidemic of chronic alcohol and drug misuse, fuelled by society's homophobia, which the Terrence Higgins Trust needs to get real about.

  04 February 2013 | The Guardian

• Text messaging as an effective HIV prevention intervention for metaphetamine-using MSM

  A study has found that text messaging can be an effective way to reduce high-risk behaviors associated with HIV transmission among methamphetamine-using men who have sex with men (MSM). Participants received a two-week intervention of social support and health education text messages in real time.

  31 January 2013 | AIDS,gov

• Is London’s gay scene self-harming through sex and drug use?

  David Stuart of gay men's drug project Antidote discusses increases in the use of methamphetamine and mephedrone in London's gay scene and an increased tendency to inject them.

  24 January 2013 | Pink News

• High-risk drug practices tighten grip on London gay scene

  The rise in use of crystal methamphetamine, with more men injecting drugs, is creating a perfect storm for transmission of both HIV and HCV, as well as a catalogue of mental health problems.

  11 January 2013 | The Lancet

• The Private War That Killed Spencer Cox

  When Spencer Cox died on December 18, 2012, in New York City, the official cause of death was AIDS-related complications, which is understandable if post-traumatic stress, despair and drug addiction are complications related to AIDS. Spencer believed that this connection exists.

  03 January 2013 | My Fabulous Disease

• Meth vaccine shows promising results in early tests

  Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have performed successful tests of an experimental methamphetamine vaccine on rats. Vaccinated animals that received the drug were largely protected from typical signs of meth intoxication. If the vaccine proves effective in humans too, it could become the first specific treatment for meth addiction, which is estimated to affect 25 million people worldwide.

  01 November 2012 | Scripps Research Institute

• Decriminalise drug use, say experts after six-year study

  A six-year study of Britain's drug laws by leading scientists, police officers, academics and experts has concluded it is time to introduce decriminalisation.

  15 October 2012 | The Guardian

• 2012 Hot Topics Conference UK

  This national harm reduction conference attracted 140 delegates from across the country and beyond, and was a great success. The programme was abstract-driven and multi-thematic, which made for an engaging day.

  09 October 2012 | Hot Topics

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