News

New data highlights that 75% of queer community doesn’t understand the severity of chemsex

Lack of knowledge leaves us more vulnerable to the risks and harms of combining chems and sex.

Means Happy

30 Jan 2025 — 6 min read

Although chemsex is a health emergency that has been impacting our community for a number of years, new research by Controlling Chemsex in partnership with data specialists Opinium reveals an alarming lack of knowledge within the queer community as well as wider society.

In a major survey of 2,000 people, Opinium looked at a range of issues relating to the LGBTQ community - testing awareness, understanding, and prioritisation.

“What shocked me most about these results was that there’s a large number of people who identify as LGBTQ who don’t understand the severity of issues relating to chemsex…” said Ignacio Labayen de Inza - founder of Controlling Chemsex - a charity that provides free support to people who need help with drug/sex-related issues.

“According to the survey, 75% of queer people don’t consider chemsex a serious issue, and 34% of queer people aren’t familiar with chemsex…” explains Labayen de Inza. “Additionally, 16% of the queer community have never heard the word chemsex until this study asked them about it. That’s likely to mean that people are taking these drugs without understanding the risks that they’re exposing themselves to. That’s deeply concerning and shows that we need to do more education and outreach within our own community.”

The survey also highlighted that there is a lack of awareness across the wider society.

“The results indicate that 68% of adults in the UK have never heard of chemsex, and only 14% of adults in the UK perceive chemsex as one of the most serious issues impacting LGBTQ people…” says Labayen de Inza. “That lack of awareness of chemsex is negatively impacting the ability of health professionals to resource and prioritise the delivery of support to people struggling with issues relating to their use of chems.”

“Controlling Chemsex provides specialist support directly to people who need it, and we’re also educating other health professionals about how to help people struggling with these complex issues…” explains Labayen de Inza. “We need to raise funding to continue offering support but we’re constantly having to educate people as to why chemsex is such a big issue for our community.”

“Hundreds of people are contacting us each year, desperate for help, desperate to try and get their lives back under control after their use of chems has destroyed everything…” says Labayen de Inza. “Those numbers are growing, the problems are getting worse, and our volunteers are struggling to cope. What’s heartbreaking is that we know that there’s a lot of people out there who don’t come to us for help. This survey highlights that chemsex is a hidden epidemic that is devastating the LGBTQ community across the UK.”

What is chemsex?

‘Chemsex’ is the term used to describe sexual activity between people who have taken specific drugs (chems) including crystal methamphetamine, mephedrone, gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) or gamma-Butyrolactone (GBL) - these drugs can enable an enhanced sexual experience but they are highly addictive and come with significant health risks.

What are the risks associated with chemsex?

Physical health: Accidents and injuries, nutritional issues, lungs and heart diseases, dental problems, disrupted sleeping patterns.
Mental health: High levels of depression, anxiety, or psychotic episodes such as paranoia or hallucinations.
Emotional health: Issues such as isolation, domestic and relationship issues, low self-esteem or inability to focus or make decisions.
Sexual health: High risks of transmissions and infections of HIV, HEP-C and other Sexually transmitted infections such as syphilis, gonorrhoea. Chemsex users are also at risk of poor adherence to HIV medication – potentially jeopardising their Undetectable status.
Financial issues and unemployment.
Personal safety: such as overdoses, sexual assault, theft, or self-harm.
Legal issues – buying, selling, and possessing these drugs is illegal.

Tips on how to control your chems use

Review your bio details on hook-up apps. Be explicit that you’re not interested in chems. Simply putting “No H&H” in your bio, for example, will limit the amount of temptation that comes your way.
Set limits on your use of hook-up apps. We’re at our most vulnerable when we’re searching for intimacy – particularly when it’s late at night and we’re feeling alone and isolated. If you’ve set yourself a rule that you’re not going to look at hook-up apps after 10 PM, have a plan for other things you can do if you’re awake and can’t sleep. It could be as simple as having some good porn on standby so you can masturbate and get the horniness out of your system.
Don’t forget that if you think it could be helpful you can disable your phone to block downloading and use of apps or websites with specific content (sexual, gambling, etc) using parental controls. You can find out how to do this by Googling ‘parental control iPhone’ or ‘apps parental control for Android’, or also downloading specific apps for this purpose, and prevent the cycle of deleting and downloading the apps.
Know your triggers.The biggest risk of a relapse often comes from friends or fuck-buddies that we’ve had good times with in the past. Odds are, you’re going to get an unexpected WhatsApp message asking if you’re up for some fun. Knowing that this trigger is going to present itself, have your coping mechanism ready to go – have a “no thanks” reply saved in your drafts, have someone lined up who you can call, have some porn ready to watch.
Keep a clear head. We tend to make poor choices when we’ve got a few drinks under our belt. Try to minimise your alcohol intake.
Keep yourself busy. If we’re feeling isolated and alone, and it feels like there’s nothing to do, then a chemsex session will seem increasingly appealing. Set yourself a list of tasks for the day. It could be as simple as reorganising your sock draw or as complicated as making some fresh pasta. There’s always something to do, if you set your mind to it.
If you do have a relapse, don’t beat yourself up too much. Slip-ups happen. Activate your support network and learn from it.