Although London is the epicentre of the chemsex scene, it is on the rise in Dublin.
Dublin, 3am. It’s a Sunday morning in a Dublin apartment. “It’s G o’clock,” cries the host. Six naked men line up to take a carefully measured dose of the drug known as G.
Get the measure wrong and you can become comatose; in the worst case scenario, you can die. A designated responsible person ticks their name off a chart so that they don’t take the next dose too soon, and they down a shot of alcohol. After a while, sex resumes.
G – short for GBL – is made from common household chemicals. It’s also a party drug which increases libido. Along with the drugs crystal meth, GBH and mephadrone, it has become common in sex parties.
In November last year, the British Medical Journal warned the rise of “chemsex” in the UK means it is no longer an alleged media scare story, but a public health priority. Chemsex typically involves use of illegal psychoactive substances, with multiple partners having sex. In an editorial, the authors warned: “Many barriers exist to chemsex drug users accessing services, including the shame and stigma often associated with drug use and ignorance of available drug services.”
Source: Peter McGuire, The Irish Times, 28/06/16
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