Sheriff’s arrest brings spotlight back to meth

Tina is back in the headlines. No – not Tina Turner. Meth.

The recent arrest of former Arapahoe Sheriff Pat Sullivan has turned the waning spotlight on meth and the gay male community back to full blast.

The topic of conversation that once dominated the mid-2000s when the party drug seemed to have a grip on the gay community had become a faint underground whisper until Sullivan was arrested Nov. 29 in an alleged meth-for-sex case.

Sullivan has been formally charged with four counts: possession of methamphetamine, distribution of meth, attempting to influence a public servant and soliciting a prostitute.

Since his arrest, dozens of gay men have come “out of the woodwork” claiming they know – and have done meth with – Sullivan, said Mile High Meth Project director and Out Front Colorado contributor Brent Heinze.

One gay man who contacted OFC said he’s known Sullivan for nine years and as recently as July witnessed him smoke meth in his apartment.

“He was into drugs, I was into drugs,” said Justin Motzer, a recovering meth addict. “Sadly, Sullivan is the new face of the gay community.”

Motzer said he used to operate a meth lab and pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge after stalking a police officer in 2010.

Sullivan aside, Motzer is concerned too many men are turning to meth and being trapped by the powerful drug. His hope is that other gay men drop the “dope” that led him to a heart attack five years ago.

“I’m lucky to survive,” he said.

But just how big of a problem is meth in the gay community, and for that matter, the state of Colorado?

Well, no one really knows for sure.

Experts interviewed by OFC couldn’t point to specific numbers. But all agree, no matter how widespread meth usage is, the drug is one of – if not the most – destructive substances on the market.

Maybe the only concrete data available to quantify meth usage in the gay male community is the number of new HIV cases by men who have sex and are injecting drug users.

Most experts agree meth usage is tied to  HIV, especially in the gay community, because inhibitions are lowered and meth users are more likely to engage in risky sexual practices including multiple sex partners during “marathons” of partying-and-playing.

In recent history, less than six percent of all new HIV diagnoses are made up of men who have sex with men and are injecting drug users, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Between 2006 and 2010, the number of new cases each year range from 19, in 2009 and 28, in 2010. Thus far in 2011, 14 new cases of HIV were found.

Comparatively, there were 249 new cases of HIV among men who had sex with men (and did not inject drugs) in both 2009 and 2010.
Over all, men who have sex with men have made up 62 percent of all new HIV cases between 2006 and 2010 and men who have sex with men and inject drugs made up 6 percent of all new diagnoses in the same time period. Together, nearly 70 percent of all new HIV cases in Colorado came from these communities.

Meanwhile, heterosexual intravenous drug users made up about 5 percent of all new HIV cases.

But the health department’s Melanie Mattson cautioned the statistics don’t necessarily mean the drugs being injected was meth nor that some men who had sex with men who contracted HIV were smoking or snorting the drug.

Moreover, some of those diagnosed with HIV could have lied about their risk level and how they might have contracted the disease, she said.

No matter how widespread the problem, even one person struggling with a meth addiction is too much, said The Mile High Meth Project’s Steve D’Ascoli.

“It affects us in so many different ways,” D’Ascoli said. “This addiction is one that does not discriminate.”

D’Ascoli said side effects vary, but one constant is the toll it takes on a person’s quality of life.

“Meth leads you to a very dark place,” he said. “It’s a secret lifestyle. It’s very isolating. Some will go for days held up in their apartment, a bath house, a hotel, just doing meth looking for a high. Looking for sex.”

The drug leaves you physically and mentally strained, he said.

Both D’Ascoli and Heinze said getting off meth is possible. But it takes dedication.

“If you’re starting to question ‘do I need to stop doing this,’ you probably need to,” D’Ascoli said.

WANT TO TALK ABOUT METH?
Are you doing meth and want to talk about it? Call the Mile High Meth Project at 303-825-8113 ext. 31