The Online Global Gay Crystal Meth Party that Never Stops
Share
There’s an online gay global crystal meth party that never stops and its hidden in plain sight. An NBC News investigation reports their findings.
RELATED: Let’s Talk About Chemsex and Gay Panic Over PNP
Regular meth users say online platforms have fundamentally changed the experience of using, worsening parts of an already blazing global meth addiction problem.
As nearly all social media platforms and tech companies have trended toward increased platform moderation amid heightened scrutiny from watchdogs, meth users have attracted little attention as they build online communities of tens of thousands of people. With a mixed bag of policies pertaining to drug content that varies by platform, users have found numerous venues where they can post photos and videos of themselves using methamphetamine, sell drugs and encourage other people to use meth.
RELATED: Guys Doing Meth on Social Messaging App Kik is a Dark View Into Gay Lives: WATCH
The growth of these communities has coincided with a meth boom in the U.S. and other parts of the world. According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, frequent meth use increased by 66 percent between 2015 and 2019. During that same time period, noncocaine stimulant overdoses nearly tripled, in part due to meth use. While the internet has long been home to groups of drug users and sellers, prosecutors and law enforcement are now increasingly targeting these groups. Despite that fact, meth-focused online behavior is openly thriving.
In interviews with NBC News, 10 current and former meth users described how modern-day social media platforms and communication tools like Zoom have fundamentally changed the experience of people using — and trying to get sober from — methamphetamine.
Meth, unlike opiates and other types of drugs, can keep users awake for days at a time, and often leaves them craving a level of social and sexual connectivity not found with many other drugs. Not only does technology make connecting with other users and sellers easier than ever before, it also provides numerous easy and sometimes hard-to-ignore triggers for craving and relapse.
The meth communities pose challenging questions for tech companies, which must determine how to moderate the groups, if at all. While experts and current and former meth users agreed that technology and the internet were worsening aspects of an already blazing global meth addiction problem, some sources said that online groups gave them a source of connection during their lowest points of isolation.
