Chemsex is an emerging issue in the Middle East and eastern Europe

by Roger Pebody

As the massive European MSM Internet Survey (EMIS) 2017 recently demonstrated, sexualised drug use among gay men is not just a phenomenon in the affluent cities of western Europe. Chemsex in the past four weeks was reported by 2.9% of respondents in Ukraine, 3.5% in Russia, 4.1% in Turkey and 2.8% in Lebanon. (The two European countries with the largest proportion of chemsex users were Belgium and the Netherlands, with 11 and 15% respectively.)

Wherever you are, only a minority of gay and bisexual men engage in chemsex, but enough men are having difficulties with it in the Middle East and eastern Europe for activists to be working to create a response. Several described their work at the recent 3rd European ChemSex Forum in Paris.

Middle East and north Africa

Elie Balan of M-Coalition and the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality reported the first-ever regional data on chemsex among men who have sex with men in the Middle East and north Africa. In just two days, adverts on the hook-up app Grindr generated 1003 responses. Read more via AIDSmap