CHEMSEX
The widespread drug epidemic affecting communities across the world, particularly queer communities that commonly mix sexual acts with partying and extending their pleasures has had a profound impact on the long-term health of its users. Long sex has come to refer to drug-enhancing stimulants that numb the mind’s amygdala, responsible for housing an individual’s inhibitions. The reduction of bedroom reluctance increases the mind’s availability for explorative acts. The primary drug responsible for inducing these acts is Methamphetamine, Chrystal Meth, Christina, and now Tina, as the streets call it.
Tina is an element, it can be a liquid you inject, absorb; a solid you can burn and smoke, or a powder you can snort. Many of the most immediate measures of injecting Tina can be the most lethal. If this is common knowledge, why then has the intake increased among populations between the ages of 18–26 at such high rates, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse? In this article, I will explore Tina’s powers and long-term side effects. I will explore the setting it is most commonly used and finally provide resources for those reading who may know someone struggling with drug-related addiction.
Black Diamonds in Ice Castles
Scientific Reports defines sexual shame as, “a set of emotions [helplessness, inadequacy, inferior[ity]]…invoked both externally by others and internally by oneself.” In the 2023 article entitled, The effects of sexual shame, emotion regulation, and gender on sexual desire, Konijnenberg further explains the side effects of shame within an individual’s psychological development. An online study prepared by the author included 218 respondents, the majority of which were single women between the ages of 18–23 years of age. Questions further segregated the feelings associated with shame, desire, lust, and fantasy. The final scores were used to calculate sexual desire in conjunction with sexual behavior. One’s willingness to engage in sexual acts is directly correlated with the inclusion and acceptance of sexuality within societal pretenses as well as internalized notions.
As Western society becomes increasingly transactional, the need for connection, livelihood, and escapism increases. The Archives of Sexual Behavior defines ‘voyeurism as “arousal [that] comes from watching others undress or engage in sexual activities.” The Journal of Sex Research estimates that approximately 47% of the population has an interest in voyeurism (Ahlers et al., 2011; Joyal & Carpentier, 2017). Pay-for-access platforms such as OnlyFans, intensify the access individuals have to engaging with or participating in content that fulfills their sexual desires. Sex is no longer exclusively a means of reproduction. Its biological properties historically have been inundated with religious heteronormal relations, but as the umbrella increases among the LGBTQIA+ community, so do sex and sexual expression.
Many of the abovementioned pretenses are the entryway for recreational drug use among marginalized communities. Suppression of humanist desires fulfill themselves in the content shared, saved, and paid for. Sexual shame has forced victims into a validation-dependent mentality which further fuels the dollars spent on actors living the lives we, ourselves have sworn off. Sociosexuality is as much an influential factor within an individual's sexual expression as the legitimizing of their internal desire. The qualitative importance of acknowledging desire has a profound impact on how and to whom we love and make love with.
Businessman and LGBT+ political activist, Ed Buck, entered national headlines in 2019 for his conviction of selling and distributing drugs from his private L.A. home, resulting in the death of two men, Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean, who died on his premises. The subsequent deaths led to a national outcry for justice, which prompted an investigation into Ed Buck’s apartment. Buck was known in West Hollywood for hosting young men in his home, luring them in with drugs and sex toys. The victims' bodies were removed from the premises, an autopsy confirmed an overdose of chemical substances.
Creative director, Michael Rice, brought the story to theatres across America with his documentary “PartyBoi: Black Diamonds in Ice Castles.” The film follows the lives of several queer men, women, and users of Tina. The marginalized communities are affected disproportionately, black and Latino queer men and women — a demographic with higher rates of HIV contraction. The documentary offers testimonies of survivors and users while also providing resources for avoiding infection, transmission, and spread of STIs.
Cost of Out-of-Body Experiences
I did not know where the drugs came from, but I knew who to call, and where to search for the illegal substances. There is always a gateway, and where there is a will there is a way. I was not searching for love when I took my first line. I wanted so desperately to leave my mind. My first week in Paris had been terribly stressful. I had no money or a place to stay; I was carrying my backpack with me for miles a day; I needed an escape. After hours of job-hunting, I found one. The position was vers, full-time, “was I available to start now?” I closed my laptop and made my way across Pont Marie. I would begin my first day on Ile Saint Louis, the devilishly divine and most expensive district in Paris.
We took the moon from the sky and filed it down into tiny lines no larger than the size of veins. With a credit card, I claim my right to the sky. Paris illuminates herself behind curtains too thick to see through. My body is as translucent as the heart pulsating through my chest. I am on the cusp of forgetting. Life and time will dance with one another in what seems to me, pure ecstasy. The feeling of fall does not hit you all at once. It is a gradual weathering in your face and hands. This is my second time participating in an endless night ritual. Menage a trois of this sort lure in non-believers who have traded faith for fantasy. I touch myself as I ready my body for the sacrificial rituals of the night. I scrub and clean, until finally, a third has arrived. French, American, Mexican. Curious international boys with time, bodies of offering, minds for slipping into the dim light of blue, and the hazy substance of the moon.
I woke up the next morning in a haze, my body felt like it weighed 50 lbs more than it had the night before. Simple tasks like rolling over, waking, or walking downstairs took tremendous effort. Sex parties are not a new phenomenon or exclusively relegated to queer communities. Aristocratic societies across the world have engaged in and hosted exclusive orgies for the bourgeois’s pleasure and escapism. The introduction of drugs into these spaces is reaching higher levels of consumption. Its prevalence can be linked to the performance anxiety associated with engaging in sexual acts in the 21st century.
Stress leads to more recreational drug use. The UK Mental Health Organization reports an increase in stress among young adults ages 18–24. The origin of stress factors include: psychological, socio-exclusionary, and financial insecurities. To ease the tension of not fulfilling their psychological and physiological needs, an increasing number of young victims are turning to drugs that provide escapism.
In the early 20th century, cinemas offered escapism to the average citizen. For prices a fraction of what cinema costs are today, patrons would form lines at the cinema to escape the monotony of the everyday. The appeal of drugs like Tina, the ephemeral feeling or visual stimulation received from these films can now be placed within the framework of an individual’s imagination. With the increase in production, recreational drug use enables its users to live out their wildest fantasies. Dreams, however, are costly.
The deaths of Gemmel Moore (26), Timothy Dean (55), and countless others are not anomalies. Many victims affected by Tina experience a loss of interest or ability to experience sexual pleasure without being under the influence of drugs and alcohol. This codependency keeps drug handlers in business while handicapping people to a vicious cycle of the lies of escapism. Long-term drug use has left many victims in a state of haze. Friends of victims have described the state, as zombie-like. They’re alive, but rather dead… in the eyes. Like they cannot function without [the drug].
Party drugs in the presence of alcohol and additional substances can lead to coma and early death. Engaging in anonymous sexual acts with the presence of drugs will impair judgment, compromising preventative measures and precautions.
Resources for anyone struggling with chemical sex will be provided below.
UK Hotline: (+44) 800 170 1222
The UK offers a 24/7 call center for anyone seeking advice and resource tools regarding their addiction. The Step-by-Step Recovery Page offers a free online health assessment, as well as information about Essex’s rehabilitation center outside of London.
U.S. Resources: (+1) 202 978 6123
The Whittman-Walker Foundation offers several partner sites on its resources page to connect victims with their specialized and individual needs. Tips on safer practices, as well as addiction-specific resources, can be found on connecting sites such as: Tweaker.org and Chemsex.gay
Paris Hotline: (+33) 1 40 09 04 45
Paris offers a Chemsex informational study on its government website, with resources for those affected to explore both in-person and virtual/by-mail appointments.
