Our London drug and alcohol and sexual health services will be at London PRIDE this year to offer advice, guidance and support to London’s LGBTQIA+ community.
London Pride covers a huge part of Central London, and many brands, services, organisations and people all around London and the UK get involved with the celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community.
SASH (Support and Advice on Sexual Health), Turning Point and London Friend, our LGBTQ+ partner organisation, will be in attendance in Soho Square, on Saturday 29th June from 9am til 6pm. We’ll be there to answer all questions related to sexual health and substance use, provide and signpost to support, as well as have some fun activities and quizzes to take part in!
What is Chemsex and the link with London Pride?
With the sun, music, and love, it might feel easier to give into risky behaviour, such as excess drinking, drug taking and unsafe sex like Chemsex. It's important to think about the impact of such activities and if it could lead to long term difficulties.
Chemsex is sexual activity, while under the influence of drugs. It typically involves the use of the following stimulants:
- Methamphetamine, known as crystal meth, crank, glass, meth and tina
- Mephedrone, know as as meph, 4-MMC, bounce, drone or meow meow
Or the following sedatives:
- GHB and GBL, also known as G, gina, geebs, liquid ecstasy and 1
Questions to ask yourself if engaging in Chemsex
- How often are you doing it? Is it a one-off, something you rarely do, or is a pattern beginning to form?
- Has a pattern already formed?
- Are others in your life being negatively impacted by your Chemsex lifestyle?
- Is it affecting your personal relationships?
- How long does it take for you to recover from a session?
If engaging in Chemsex, here are some tips you can do to make it safer:
- Using condoms and lube, and other barrier protection methods
- Setting ground rules whilst sober about what you do and don’t want
- Not sharing needles or items for snorting
- Taking PrEP/PEP to protect against HIV
As with all and any sexual activity, it is important to get regularly tested for sexually transmitted infections (STI's), even if you've only been with the same person. You can get an STI test done by going to your local sexual health clinic, speaking to your GP, or to have a testing kit sent to your home, visit www.sash.shl.uk
What support is out there?
Turning Point work with local London LGBTQ+ charity London Friend to provide an LGBTQ+ specific offer called Antidote. We are here if you want to have a chat around using drugs such as GBH, GBL, as well as alcohol.
We offer you free, confidential one-to-one support and/or connect you to a queer sober community of others making positive changes around drugs and alcohol. We support those who want to cut down and those who want to stop completely, there is no judgement here.
SASH is here to support and advise you around sexual health and relationships. We can help you leave the Chemsex scene. We provide free counselling, coaching, peer mentoring, trainings, and workshops, and are here to provide support on managing your chemsex use.
Refer yourself here to Antidote, Turning Point and London Friend’s drug and alcohol support.
Refer yourself here for SASH’s sexual health and relationship support.