TINA TACKLED?

Funding Runs Out For Crystal Meth Project

By now everyone has heard about the problem of crystal meth use in
Toronto's gay scene. But questions remain about just how bad it is and
what should be done about it.

"The coverage on this issue has been incredible, and not necessarily
in a positive way," says Nick Boyce, the Gay Men's Harm Reduction
coordinator for the AIDS Committee Of Toronto (ACT). "We're seeing
headlines like 'One Hit And You're Hooked' and 'Lifetime Addiction,'
which simply isn't true."

Boyce was one of five panelists at a community discussion held Mar 22
at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre titled "What's Up With Tina?" The
event was organized by the Toronto Gay/Bisexual Men's Crystal Meth
Task Force.

Formed in February 2005, the taskforce was created with
representatives from 13 community agencies including ACT, Toronto
Public Health, the provincial AIDS Bureau and Gay Guide Toronto, as
well as bathhouse management, meth users, nonusers and ex-users. In
2005 the taskforce received $130,000 from Health Canada to facilitate
a coordinated response from community agencies toward queer men's meth
use and to spread information including harm reduction tactics. That
money runs out at the end of March.

Boyce notes that the election of the federal Conservatives to a
minority government last year was cause for concern for the taskforce.

"There's been a shift at the federal level in the drug strategy," he
says. "They've taken harm reduction out of the mix and shifted their
focus to justice. I think we're going to see a shift to a US-style
approach to dealing with drug use."

That shift is already affecting the taskforce; the funding it received
in 2005 is no longer available because of cuts made by the
Conservatives. In order to keep the program going, the taskforce will
be looking to the City Of Toronto for help, as well seeking out other
sources of funding.

In 2006 the taskforce conducted a survey of men who have sex with men;
the survey was repeated in 2007. Tim Guimond, a fourth-year resident
in psychiatry at U of T who helped develop the survey, says they found
no significant increase in meth usage from one year to the next.

One of the major concerns about meth use is that it will lead to an
increase in HIV rates by affecting meth users' choices about safer sex
practices. However the survey reported no significant increase in
overall HIV rates from one year to the next. It did note that for meth
users, the rate of HIV infection is slightly higher and that more men
who were using meth did not know their HIV status.

Jim Cullen, a PhD candidate at U of T researching meth addition, has
found that while meth addiction can be difficult to treat, it's no
more challenging than treating addiction to other stimulants, such as
cocaine -- a finding that has some experts arguing that meth-specific
treatment programs aren't necessary. Cullen says he isn't ready to
agree or disagree with that hypothesis until more research is done.

Cullen says treatment programs which reward good behaviour, rather
than punishing bad behaviour are more successful.

"We think of the person being treated in metaphorical terms as a chair
and the leg is meth," he says. "If we remove the leg, we have to
replace it with something, otherwise the chair will fall over."

He pointed to programs in the US where users undergoing treatment
receive vouchers for things like clothing, food or entertainment in
exchange for clean urine samples or meeting harm reduction goals.

Shaun Proulx, editor of Gay Guide Toronto and regular Xtra
contributor, was one of the taskforce members to attend an
international conference on meth use in Salt Lake City last August.
There, he encountered the work of psychologist David Schwartz who is
examining the role of sexuality in the treatment of meth addiction.

"He couldn't overemphasize that if we ignore sexuality in recovery
we're in a lot of trouble," says Proulx. "He went on to say that
success is met by recognizing and learning about your deepest sexual
self."

Rehab programs traditionally take a very sex-negative approach to
treatment. In some cases, users who are caught masturbating or with
sex toys while in rehab are reprimanded, which Schwartz says is highly
counterproductive.

For many queer men who use meth as part of sex, the drug is thought to
be deeply connected to their ability to express their sexuality, by
allowing a freedom from judgment about themselves and their sexual
desires. Panelists stressed that it's a necessary part of recovery for
users to learn how to express their sexuality without the use of the
drug, if treatment is to be successful.

"It's up to the gay community to be a leader, if not the leader in
educating and guiding stakeholders by sharing our stories," says
Proulx. "We need to continue to be there as a community because those
who would be in charge of taking care of us are still working to
understand us."