The Psycho-Social and Socio-Cultural Factors of Crystal Methamphetamine Use Among the Gay, Bi and MSM (GBM) Population

Abstract

In the United States, men who have sex with men (MSM) remain as the demographic group with the highest HIV incidence rates and account for 53% of new HIV infections in 2006 (Rajasingham, Mimiaga, White, Pinkston, Baden, & Mitty, 2012). One of the reasons accounting for such high rates of HIV transmission between gay, bisexual and MSM (GBM) can be attributed to poly-substance use and the use of crystal methamphetamine (Solomon, Halkitis, Moeller, & Pappas, 2012; Rajasingham et al., 2012). The U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (2007) reported methamphetamine use in the MSM community is of particular concern due to the high prevalence of HIV and the use of the stimulant. Meanwhile, researchers have found methamphetamine use is closely corrleated to sexual risk taking among GBM and such intimate link between risky sexual behaviour and methamphetamine use have led to a possible double epidemic (Halkitis, Green, & Carragher, 2006). In particular, the use of methamphetamine has been found to be correlated to the frequency of unprotected insertive anal intercourse (UIAI) and unprotected receptive anal intercourse (URAI) among HIV positive and persons with unknown serostatus causal partners over time (Halkitis, Mukherjee, & Palamar, 2009). As an effort to better understand this social pheonemon, this paper focuses on the exploration and identification of the psycho-social and socio-cultural factors of crystal methamphetamine use among the GBM population.