ACT SUSPENDS VOLUNTEER OVER ANTI-CRYSTAL STAND

He Felt He Couldn't Follow Policy Any More

The AIDS Committee Of Toronto (ACT) has told one of its outreach
volunteers to go on leave after he complained about the organization's
stance on crystal methamphetamine and the spread of HIV among gay men.

"I was told my values were very inconsistent with ACT's," says Greg
Downer, who volunteered for five years as a safer-sex educator in
bathhouses, bars, parties and street events. "They were so concerned
that they didn't trust me to put out the right message."

Downer contends an ACT pamphlet called "Partying With Club Drugs For
Gay Men," published last fall, isn't firm enough in warning against
the risks of HIV infection to men who take crystal and have
unprotected sex.

Earlier this year, Downer shared his concerns to ACT's executive
director Lori Lucier and administration by phone message and e-mail.
When no one responded, he sent a letter to local media outlets and the
chair of ACT's board.

"ACT downplays the link between using crystal and getting HIV.... This
will create a false sense of security for those people entertaining
the idea of adding crystal to their sexual experience," stated the
letter.

Although the letter was never published, he arranged a meeting in
April with ACT's program volunteer coordinator Sergio Martinez and
director of communications and community education John Maxwell to
voice his concerns. Following the meeting he received an e-mail from
Martinez telling him to go on a six-month leave from the Gay Men's
Outreach Program.

"I'm stunned," Downer says. "I just can't believe that I'm having this
conversation with ACT. I just expected that they would take the lead
in our community."

Maxwell declined to comment on Downer's leave of absence, saying it is
a confidential matter.

As an HIV-positive reformed crystal addict, Downer has a lot of
firsthand experience of how inhibitions get tossed out the bathhouse
window during sex on crystal. He first snorted crystal in January 2002
and it quickly replaced all other recreational drugs he used.

"I disclosed my status to a number of people that continued to have
sex with me without a condom," he says. "That never happened to me
before. More often than not, the subject didn't even come up, which
was alarming."

In spite of his strong feelings, he insists he has kept his personal
opinion to himself and never deviated from ACT's official position on
the issue when doing outreach on the organization's behalf.

Crystal's popularity as a club drug among gay men has been taking off
in the last few years and has been widely reported on in San
Francisico and New York. Maxwell says there is not a lot of conclusive
research on the link between crystal and uninhibited sex among gay
men.

Two weeks ago, Maxwell attended a province-wide conference on gay
men's education where a researcher from the BC Centre For Excellence
presented a study on the sex habits of young gay men in Vancouver
between 1997 and 2002. The study found that guys on crystal were no
more likely to have unsafe sex than guys high on other drugs. It
concluded that the use of crystal, marijuana and ecstasy were all
connected to unprotected anal sex.

"The direct link that's being made is not clear at all," Maxwell says.
"The waters are even muddier than they were before."

ACT's existing pamphlet on party drugs was based on interviews
conducted in 2003 with 74 gay men who all reported using ecstasy,
ketamine, GHB, crystal and cocaine while partying in Toronto. Although
the study found many of the men eschewed safer sex when high, it also
reported that many had a lousy track record for safer sex in the first
place.

Maxwell says ACT will apply for funding from the government to begin
its own research on the subject before considering an anti-crystal
campaign.

Although ACT is reluctant to say there's a link between crystal and
unprotected sex, the Ottawa-based Canadian AIDS Society (CAS) calls
the chance of HIV infection through unsafe sex "one of the biggest
health risks from using crystal meth" because it increases euphoria
and lowers inhibitions.

CAS project consultant Lynne Belle-Isle based the fact sheet on data
collected through a workshop she conducted in Ottawa and interviews
with 10 gay men. Although she agrees there isn't much research on the
topic, she says she couldn't ignore the compelling testimonials from
gay men who told her they obsessively seek out sex when they're high
on crystal.

"The use of crystal meth is different to the use of other drugs
because there are rituals associated with it," she says. "It does have
a direct impact on the parts of the brain that stimulate sexual drive.
One guy in New York told me it turns the biggest top into the
greediest bottom."

The Canadian AIDS Society website includes a crystal fact sheet. It
can be accessed by going to Cdnaids.ca and looking under CAS
resources, backgrounders/fact sheets.