New Chemsex Study Examines the Prevalence of Drug-Fueled Sex

I had to laugh when I posted a blog entitled 'Chemsex' Is Coming To The United States. The comments we got were, "It's here dumbasses" and "It's been here for decades." I had to laugh because they were comments about a story they didn't even read. The 'Chemsex' blog was about a documentary about chemsex, p'n'p, or party and play that was finally coming to and being aired in America.

What came out of those comments was that most of us knew very well what chemsex is.

But a bigger questions was … how many people are having chemsex? In one of our blogs from 2015 (London: Rise In Gay Men Injecting Drugs At Sex Parties) we see the quote:

The number of men injecting in a sexual context quadrupled between 2011 and 2013, according to Antidote, the UK’s only lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender drug and alcohol support service. More than 60 per cent of their clients injected drugs last year. This is double the number who injected in 2010. Nine years ago, fewer than 1 per cent were injecting drugs. – The Independent

So how popular is chemsex? Is it really as prevalent in the gay community as we are lead to believe?

Dr.Bourne, who recently interviewed with the prominent Gay News Network (GNN) after the release of his statements emphasizing the sensationalization of chemsex reports, expressed that “Chemsex is something we have to remain vigilant about, but we also have to be wary of drawing simple conclusions without considering the right evidence. Only a small minority of gay men use drugs on a regular basis, and only a minority of those do so in a sexual context.”

In a new study by Squirt.org, they found chemsex, also known as Party and Play (PNP), or drug-fueled sex is prevalent with 30% of survey respondents admitting that they have engaged in the activity.

The study, which surveyed 22,248 Squirt.org members, also showed that despite widespread usage of illicit drugs during sex, only about 39% of respondents said they would consider engaging in chemsex while 61% said they would not.

“We wanted to provide our members very important information about chemsex within the gay and bisexual community,” said Attila Szatmari, Digital Business Director for Pink Triangle Press, Squirt.org’s parent company. “We now have statistics from real people showing infrequent participation in chemsex, not this hyper-usage that seems to be reported in mainstream media.”