San Francisco Examiner - January 21, 2002
Tanya Pampalone, of the Examiner Staff

And that lack of treatment could be spreading more than drug dependence.

The correlation between speed use and HIV transmission has providers worried, as HIV-negative men are being sent back to the streets, where drug-induced, unsafe sex is likely to turn them HIV positive.

"There is a high chance that someone will get infected before getting into treatment ... and that's tragic," said Michael Siever, project director of Stonewall Project, a program that offers group counseling and individualtreatment to gay, speed-addicted men.

High demand

"There is a much higher demand than we can provide. Much as The City has a policy for treatment on demand, we are nowhere near meeting demand."

Preliminary findings presented last week in a Department of Public Health study show high rates of speed use in the late-night gay community.

According to Mike Pendo, project director for the Party and Play Study, 64 percent of the men interviewed had used speed in the past few months -- and 94 percent of those who injected drugs were injecting methamphetamines. The study, over a six-month period, surveyed 356 gay men who went out between midnight and 4 a.m.

But researchers say it's not so much the needles that are dangerous, as the unsafe sex that follows.

Up all night

"Speed is associated with sex," said Siever. "What other drug allows you to have sex for 14 hours on end? You don't lose energy, you don't have to stop and recuperate. It's like the Eveready bunny ... that's the appeal."

The City's gay community has a long history of using methamphetamines, which can be snorted, smoked or injected. Forty percent of clients that come in for treatment for speed addiction are gay males, according to John Newmeyer, epidemiologist at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics.

The clinic treats as many as it can, he said, but there just aren't enough slots.

When an addict is reaching out, waiting for six months isn't an option.

"You have to strike when the iron is hot," Newmeyer said. "Same day treatment is the ideal."

While speed use has dropped in The City, studies from the Drug Abuse Warning Network continue to rank San Francisco No. 1 in the country for methamphetamine use.

"The goals of treatment on demand were good goals but they never translated to policy," said Emergency room physician and author Lonny Shavelson, who documented the lives of five addicts in San Francisco between 1998 and 2000 for his book "Hooked."

"These waiting lists are costing a lot of money in terms of damages to addicts and The City."

While no financial calculations have been made, HIV infections in cities are up nation wide.

Ultimately, The City may be left with a more expensive problem: more HIV positive drug addicts.

E-mail Tanya Pampalone at tpampalone@sfexaminer.com

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