'Drug Use "Seven Times Higher" Amongst Gays'.
Unfortunately, like most of the stuff the Independent runs on "Gays" [sic], it's stupid and patronising rubbish.
The "seven times" figure is nebulous - here's the report - but it became a media canard.
And anyway, there is no way anyone can do a reliable survey on gay - or straight - drug use, so nothing can be extrapolated from this by any rational person.
If you do a self-selecting online survey, or ask people at Pride events, people who don't do drugs will probably ignore it, people who take them will happily fill it in.
How can you compare its findings to an official crime survey, across all age groups, where people might - just possibly - be tempted to play down their drug use?
Apples/oranges.
Gay men certainly take more drugs than their straight peers, but this is rarely "problematic" or "drug abuse".
Though admittedly, some groups looking for more Lottery funding may want to make out it's a big problem.
It's usually just fun - like sticking a cock in your gob - and it's insane and reprehensible to try and stigmatise it.
You're infinitely more likely to die in a car accident going to a gay club, than you are of dying of drugs inside one.
Should we start telling gay men not to get in cars?
And the survey was published over a month ago, so why does The Independent think this is news?
My guess is this crapola was written by some silly posh intern whose knowledge of gay men, drugs and the gay scene could be summarised as "Fuck all."
As I keep saying, The Independent's gay news coverage is the most dreadful and erratic drivel.
But this was particularly shameful and stupid, stupid, stupid!
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Why is there always an assumption that if a study is about substance use it must be trying to stigmatise the user? As far as I can see this report in no way says anything negative about substance users and a lot of what is striking in the report is related to the legal substance of alcohol which is generally accepted as perfectly fine in our society. Furthermore, why is there also an assumption that the people conducting research must be total idiots incapable of recruiting both substance users and non-users - in fact if you actually read the report you will see that substance users are still in the minority. Perhaps this survey will actually go some way to helping shape services for those in need and should instead be seen as a good thing?
ReplyDelete“Making comparisons between the drug use reported and that reported by the general population is not straightforward because the sample is younger by comparison.”
DeletePage 10.
ie it's baloney
Can't see what the purpose of this survey is apart from exaggerating gay mens' drug "abuse" so some groups can get more funding.