In
November
1999,
a
young
gay
man
named
Skanda
sat
in
the
passenger
seat
of
a
car
headed
cross-country
to
Atlanta,
dreadfully
afraid
that
he
was
leaving
the
party
behind
in
Phoenix.
“To
be
honest,
I
didn’t
want
to
move
to
Atlanta
because
I
didn’t
think
crystal
meth
would
be
big
here,
and
so
I
was
scared,”
said
Skanda,
who
asked
that
his
last
name
not
be
used.
“Little
did
I
know
how
huge
it
would
be
here
—
it’s
everywhere,
and
not
just
with
the
gay
community.”
Like
many
gay
men
who
use
crystal
meth,
Skanda
was
introduced
to
the
drug
as
a
powerful
stimulant
during
sex.
“It
was
like
you
wanted
to
engage
with
as
many
partners
as
possible,”
Skanda
said.
“And
you
wanted
it
to
be
raw
as
it
possibly
could
be.”
Skanda’s
initial
fears
of
living
in
Atlanta
minus
crystal
meth
were
erased
within
weeks
upon
his
arrival,
after
he
discovered
a
couple
of
sure-fire
locations
for
him
to
score
the
drug.
“It
was
pretty
common
— if
I
wouldn’t
find
it
with
the
drug
dealer
I
could
go
to
the
club
and
easily
find
it
in
the
club,”
he
said.
During
about
eight
years
of
using
crystal
meth,
Skanda
lost
a
dizzying
number
of
jobs,
was
on
the
brink
of
homelessness
and
had
a
trio
of
friends
launch
an
intervention
in
his
sparsely
decorated
apartment.
After
hitting
bottom
once
again
in
2002,
Skanda
embraced
a
12-step
program
to
fight
his
addiction,
with
the
help
of
his
yoga
instructor
and
other
close
friends.
“I
started
losing
my
mind
— I
was
filled
with
fear,
paranoia
and
self-hatred,”
Skanda
said.
“I
had
nothing,
I
was
losing
everything
all
over
again,
I
had
been
here
before,
and
knew
I
needed
to
do
something
about
it.”
Despite
the
surge
in
crystal
meth
use
and
distribution
in
Atlanta,
the
city
“is
very
much
behind
the
times”
when
it
comes
to
heightening
awareness
and
prevention,
according
to
Brian
Dew,
an
assistant
professor
in
the
Department
of
Counseling
and
Psychological
Services
at
Georgia
State
University.
Dew,
who
is
also
the
founder
and
president
of
the
Atlanta
Meth
Task
Force,
is
scheduled
to
speak
about
the
impact
of
crystal
meth
use
on
gay
men
at
the
Atlanta
Executive
Network,
a
gay
business
group,
on
Sept.
28.
“I
think
the
GLBT
community
—
not
just
Atlanta,
but
at
large
— has
been
quite
slow
in
critiquing
behaviors
that
are
not
conducive
to
positive
mental
health,
and
some
forms
of
physical
health
as
well,”
Dew
said.
According
to
several
recent
studies
that
Dew
will
partly
present
at
the
AEN
meeting,
65
to
70
percent
of
gay
and
bisexual
men
in
Atlanta
has
at
least
one
friend
who
has
used
crystal
meth,
and
75
percent
believe
the
drug
is
responsible
for
the
rise
in
HIV
among
gay
men
in
Atlanta.
Another
study
indicates
that
almost
four
out
of
every
five
gay
and
bisexual
men
surveyed
said
they
desire
more
educational
campaigns
about
the
risk
of
crystal
meth.
“That
says
that
even
within
our
own
community,
there
is
a
recognized
need
to
do
more,”
Dew
said.
“This
is
not
just
a
small
group
of
people
sitting
on
the
outside
saying,
‘Oh,
you
need
to
change
your
behavior.’”
Atlanta’s
location
along
several
interstates
has
made
the
city
the
crystal
meth
hub
of
the
southeast,
and
is
one
of
the
reasons
it
“has
the
fastest
growing
rates
of
meth
use
than
any
metropolitan
area
in
the
country,”
according
to
Dew.
Various
measures
indicate
elevations
in
meth
use
over
the
last
five
years,
including
emergency
room
admissions,
the
amount
of
confiscated
drugs,
Drug
Enforcement
Agency
data
and
the
number
of
people
seeking
public
substance
abuse
treatment,
Dew
said.
But
whereas
crystal
meth
use
was
once
synonymous
with
the
gay
party
scene,
currently
among
the
state’s
most
affected
regions
are
rural
areas
like
the
foothills
of
the
Appalachian
Mountains
in
north
Georgia.
“Five
years
ago,
I
would’ve
said
meth
problem,
especially
in
metro
Atlanta,
had
been
focused
largely
in
[gay
and
bisexual
men],”
Dew
said.
“I
can’t
say
that
anymore.”
One
of
the
things
that
continues
to
make
crystal
meth
use
among
gay
men
worrisome
is
its
impact
on
the
safer
sex
practices
of
many
users,
Dew
said.
“We
know
that
just
a
small
amount
of
meth,
even
a
recreational
amount
such
as
using
one
time
a
weekend,
that
individuals
are
less
likely
to
protect
themselves
because
of
the
drug’s
impact
on
the
limbic
system,
which
controls
your
reasoning
and
memory,”
said
Dew,
who
also
noted
the
unique
circumstances
for
HIV-positive
meth
users.
“Meth
reduces
the
stigmatization
and
shame
they
feel
about
being
...
