Drug / alcohol use

What's so bad with this combination?

HIV can be transmitted by sharing injection or snorting equipment. The effects of drugs and alcohol can also increase your risk for HIV. Being drunk or high affects your ability to make safe choices and lowers your inhibitions, which may lead you to do something like having sex without condoms or having more rough sex, which you are less likely to when sober.

• Drugs mess with your mind: drug use can cause you to act and talk in strange ways, moreover, it can make you less able to remember things, to think clearly, or to study or work properly.
• Drugs mess with your body: drug use can cause skin changes, impotence, and urinary incontinence. It also speeds up aging and makes you ill more easily. An overdose can even kill.
• Drugs mess with your wallet: a drug habit can be expensive, that's why many drug addicts are forced into crime or under the control of dealers. Don't waste your money.
• Drugs mess with your life plan: a criminal record of drug offences means you are not allowed entry into some countries such as Japan, Canada and USA. Looking for a job could also be difficult since this limits your choices and what you can do with your life.

Recreational substances or drugs used by local MSM

According to HARiS 2020, a behavioural survey conducted by DH:

8.6% of MSM have taken recreational drugs or substances before or during sex (chemsex/chemfun). The commonest drug used is poppers (70.9%), ice (48.0%) and GHB (40.2%). Chemsex users reported a higher HIV testing rate than non-chemsex users.