ssh-chemsex-study-final-main-report

3.4 RECENCY OF DRUG USE BY MEN IN LSL
Men were offered a list of 16 drugs and for each they
were asked for the last time they had used each of them.
The mean number of different drugs (not including
alcohol or tobacco) used by men resident in LSL was 2.8,
compared with 2.1 in the rest of London and 1.3 in the rest
of England. This suggests a high level of poly-drug use in
LSL residents compared with elsewhere.
The following table shows the proportion of men living
in LSL who used each of the drugs within a range of time
frames prior to completing the survey (sample size varies
due to missing data). The drugs are ordered as they
were asked in the survey. Common chemsex drugs are
highlighted in green.
TABLE 3.3 Recency of drug use among MSM in LSL %
Drug used
within the
last:
Alcohol
N = 1140
Tobacco
N = 1136
Poppers
N = 1136
Viagra
N = 1135
Sedatives
N = 1132
Cannabis
N = 1132
Ecstasy
N = 1134
Amphetamine
N = 1121
24 hrs 50.9 30.8 8.8 3.8 1.9 5.7 0.5 0.0
7 days 34.0 7.1 15.3 10.7 3.0 6.4 3.1 0.2
4 wks 8.2 5.5 14.1 10.8 3.3 7.4 8.1 1.2
6 mths 2.7 4.6 13.0 9.6 5.5 10.4 11.1 3.6
12 mths 1.1 4.0 7.7 5.2 3.8 8.8 8.7 4.9
1-5 years 0.9 9.1 12.2 10.1 7.4 13.5 13.1 14.1
>5 years 1.1 12.1 9.4 2.9 6.4 14.1 9.7 17.9
Never 1.1 26.8 19.4 46.8 68.6 33.6 45.6 58.2
Drug used
within the
last:
Crystal
meth
N = 1133
Heroin
N = 1134
Mephadrone
N = 1135
GHB/GBL
N = 1124
Ketamine
N = 1132
LSD
N = 1123
Cocaine
N = 1130
Crack
cocaine
N = 1130
24 hrs 0.6 0.0 0.6 1.2 1.2 0.0 1.9 0.0
7 days 1.6 0.1 3.6 4.1 3.4 0.3 5.7 0.0
4 wks 2.7 0.0 6.0 5.2 4.9 0.4 10.4 0.2
6 mths 5.5 0.2 12.8 5.3 9.4 1.3 11.5 0.3
12 mths 3.2 0.1 3.7 4.3 6.7 1.9 8.2 1.2
1-5 years 6.4 0.8 0.4 7.4 11.5 6.6 11.4 2.1
>5 years 4.1 3.2 0.1 3.1 4.7 18.9 6.9 2.6
Never 75.9 95.7 72.8 69.4 58.1 70.7 44.0 93.7
The following chart shows this data graphically. The
drugs are ordered (right to left) by the proportion that
had used the drug in the last 12 months.
Alcohol use was almost universal with 96.9% having used
in the last 12 months and 50.9% having used in the last 24
hours. Cocaine use was almost as common as cannabis
use: 66.4% had ever use cannabis, 38.7% had done so in
the last year and 19.5% had done so in the last 4 weeks;
56.0% had ever used cocaine, 37.7% had done so in the
last year and 18.0% had done so in the last 4 weeks.
These data indicate that, when compared to the use of
other substances, the use of key chemsex drugs was
relatively low. However, almost all mephedrone use was
recent use: 98.2% of men who had ever used it had
The Chemsex Study | 3. DRUG USE SURVEY DATA FROM EMIS 20