INVESTIGATION:- This risky practice of associating sex with synthetic drugs has been gaining momentum among young French people for several years. Between addiction and overdose, many followers struggle to get off the hook.
On May 29, 2018, the lifeless body of 31-year-old Christophe Michel was found in a man’s apartment in the suburbs of Paris. Around him: syringes, snoring equipment, alcohol bottles and sex toys. After months of investigation, the coroner’s office has concluded that the husband of Paris deputy mayor Jean-Luc Romero died of an overdose of drugs and alcohol after an intense sexual relationship. A practice commonly known as chemsex chemical And sex), from Anglo-Saxon gay culture and increasingly popular in France since the 2000s. Luke Romero 2021 Madame Figaro. Chemsex is no longer a marginal phenomenon. It’s time for the state authorities to seize it.”
If the chosen Parisian, the author of the book More alive than ever, how to survive the unacceptable, until then one of the few politicians to speak publicly about it, Palmade’s case is now reigniting the debate. On February 11, the 54-year-old comedian was detained after a serious traffic accident, as a result of which several people were injured. according to the information received from Figaro, he was accompanied by two young men who came out of a twenty-four-hour party and were still under the influence of drugs. If the word chemsex was not officially attached to the file, then the awakened context reveals the existence of this phenomenon and its danger.
Increasing self-confidence
By definition, chemsex consists of taking psychoactive substances (synthetic drugs like 3-MMC, methamphetamine, or GHB, editor’s note) in order to facilitate, prolong and intensify the sexual act; “Often chemists These ‘sessions’ will combine several substances,” explains Anne Battis, a pharmacist at the Center for Evaluation and Information on Drug Dependence (CEIP-A) in Paris. They will add alcohol, pop or drugs to the synthetic drugs to help them get off or prolong the erection. All this gives an explosive cocktail, from which some people never get up.
The survey in 2018 Dramas (1) Initiated by the Regional Health Agency, since 2015 there have been approximately ten deaths per year during these evenings. A figure that would be false because “it is difficult to make the connection between death, context and practice”. Falsely low, too, given his dazzling specialty in urban areas. 2020 New York Times even went so far as to compare chemsex to the new AIDS epidemic. Last year we thus explored the distractions of this world between pleasures and sufferings.
“Relapses are common”
As every Friday, Etienne* opens the doors of the church in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. For almost two years, he has been conducting Narcotics Anonymous (AA) meetings dedicated to LGBT people in the building. The 38-year-old former “chemist”, who has lived through hell for almost ten years, now listens carefully to the meandering journey of these newcomers – “better, younger and more and more”.
Among them is Mathias*, a 21-year-old architecture student. The young man who landed in the capital with his majority fell for chemsex through a man he met on a dating app. grinder. On their second date with friends, 3-MMC was passed from hand to hand under the table. “It was unbelievable… I was a young gay man who wasn’t coming to terms with it at the time. Suddenly I was able to realize my fantasies, I felt alive. So picking each of my reports has become an obsession. Every weekend I ended up in apartments with many men. I completely lost control,” he recalls.
I was a young gay man who didn’t pretend to be. Suddenly I could fulfill my fantasies, I felt alive
Mathias
If Mathias, who has not repeated for four months, smiles widely that day, Gael does not hide his anger and disappointment. “The allure of chemsex is too strong for me,” says the 28-year-old practitioner, looking disappointed. His last attempt, a week ago, lasted four days this time. Without sleeping or eating.
A year ago, however, Gael realized the seriousness of his situation after waking up naked in a strange apartment. Like Christophe Michel, Jean-Luc Romero’s husband, he had fallen victim to the G-Hole, an all-too-frequent and minor overdose of GBL that plunges the luckiest into a transient coma. “I don’t remember anything,” he explains. I just know that I was raped several times while filming. After that I often thought about killing myself. And yet, I go back there every time.”
Multidisciplinary background
For Dorian Sessa, psychiatrist and narcissist at Lyon University Hospital and study author Sea, sex and chemistry (2020), the consequences of chemsex are dramatic for both victims and perpetrators. “I have patients who have done things during these evenings that they don’t remember,” he claims. The fact that they don’t sleep, don’t drink, don’t eat and take so many substances makes them lose their perception of reality. In fact, there are only victims in these parts.
There are only victims in these parts
Dorian Sessa, Psychiatrist and Narcotic
How to fight against chemsex? Why take the youngest practitioners out of this scourge? The doctor responds with an alarming remark. “Addiction centers don’t understand that this is a co-dependency that involves both substance use and sexual behavior, almost always moving patients to separate services. However, he explains, multidisciplinary supervision with a drug addict, a sexologist and a psychiatrist is necessary for treatment. “Understand, the patient will cure his addiction to drugs, but not to sex. So when he wants sex, he will inevitably fall back into drugs because in his head the two are linked. In Paris, only Fernand Vidal Hospital has recently offered complete care. Opened in September 2020, the service, overwhelmed by demand, could no longer accept patients after three months of operation.
In the video, this Youtube shows how easy it is to drug a girl without her knowledge
In an attempt to mitigate the damage, others then root for the problem. Like Michelle Maw, chairman of Playsafe, an association that fights to reduce risks in the festive environment. He decided to follow the websites and applications (Snapchat, Tinder, Grinder, etc.) where these prohibited substances are sold. In 2020, the French Observatory on Drugs and Narcotics (OFTD) identified around 600 synthetic drugs over the counter. “It is the fragmentation of this market that facilitates the emergence of chemsex. Medicines have become available with one click and have become cheaper,” he warns.
For several years now, Michelle Mau has been calling for public authorities to wake up, calling for awareness to measure the carnage of the gay community. “There’s a huge taboo around chemsex because it’s associated with both minorities and sexuality. But the practice has spread, and affects everyone, he adds. Now the associations should be supported and helped.”
So, if Jean-Luc Romero regretted his eyes sinking into his shoes a few years ago when he raised the issue of chemosex at the Ministry of Health, the case of Pierre Palmad could remedy that. “Chemsex has taken too many lives,” she said. I don’t want Christophes to die anymore.”
- Names have been changed
- (1) Dramas, deaths related to drug and substance abuse
Source: Le Figaro
