Crystal methamphetamine might not be so sexy any more. There have been reported decreases in crystal meth use and HIV infection rates among gay and bi men, but community service providers aren't convinced the message equals a trend.

That is why starting this week the Stonewall Project is launching the "Hot Sex Without Crystal? Hell Yes!" campaign featuring eight gay male porn stars who volunteered their time for the project to promote the message that hot sex on a natural high is not only possible but sexy as well.

The campaign launches with a full-page advertisement in Gloss magazine on January 12 followed by a feature article and ad spread in the January 16 issue of the Advocate . Posters will begin to pop up in the Castro starting with the bulletin board between Hot Cookie and Twin Peaks bar around the same time.

"I was ecstatic to be given the opportunity to be a part of this campaign," porn star Matt Cole, wrote in an e-mail. "Although I have not had a problem with crystal in the past, I am a recovering addict of other drugs. I have witnessed first hand the effects of crystal on my friends and the gay community and many of the poor personal choices that we make when we are high on drugs."

Others in the campaign also have personal reasons for participating.

"I had gone through my own experiences with crystal," said porn star Tom Lazzari, who also volunteered his time for the campaign and said that he hasn't used crystal meth in two years. "I was given a second chance. This is my way of giving back."

"Meth has been a huge issue in the gay community for decades. It's not something that's new and it's not something that's ever going away," Michael Siever, Ph.D., director of the Stonewall Project, told the Bay Area Reporter. "One of the biggest issues for so many guys is that their sexuality gets hijacked by crystal meth."

Siever explained how the drug hooks people by providing a sexy edge of confidence to approach anyone, as well as sexual endurance. "I don't know any other drug that can enable you to have sex for days on end," he said.

This leads to the myth, he noted, that you can't have hot sex without being high on crystal. The goal of the campaign is to challenge that myth as well as encourage people to seek help no matter what stage they may be with their meth use. The Stonewall Project also runs the http://www.tweaker.org Web site, which focuses on harm reduction. Siever said the site gets about 2,500 visitors a day.

Siever said he could not provide a cost for the upcoming ad campaign because a lot of decisions about how to spend the funds have not yet been made. The ad directs people to tweaker.org, which is funded by the health department's HIV prevention section.

Trend shows decrease

But health officials say that based on recent statistics, crystal use may have fallen out of favor among gay and bi men, or at least isn't used as much.

Dr. Willi McFarland, director of HIV/AIDS statistics and epidemiology at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, watches trends in crystal meth and other drugs used among gay and bisexual men.

McFarland told the B.A.R. that the data he is currently looking at spans from 2003 – when experts first started observing gay and bisexual men's behaviors with crystal meth use and HIV – to early 2006. He said that the data taken from surveys of nearly 5,000 gay and bisexual men revealed that there has been a significant decrease in general use of meth among HIV-negative gay and bisexual men.

He said that within the three years the data was collected from the men who used crystal meth the rate of use dropped from 11.8 percent to 6.6 percent, but the drop wasn't quite as significant among HIV-positive gay and bisexual men. McFarland said the rate of use with sex was 24.8 percent late in 2003 and when surveyed again in early 2006, it had only dropped to 19.9 percent. He also noted that the information he is reviewing shows that when sex and crystal meth mix, risky behavior (unprotected anal sex) increases. He is still reviewing the data.

Similarly, the San Francisco health department has noticed a slight decrease in new cases of HIV transmission. For 2005, the most recent data available, there was a 21 percent drop in new cases of HIV transmission among gay and bisexual men since 2001, despite an increase in the population, according to the DPH annual HIV/AIDS Epidemiology Report for 2005.

Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, director of the STD Prevention and Control for DPH, is hopeful that the emerging figures potentially point toward a positive new trend.

"It's encouraging and shows that social marketing campaigns can be effective, that the San Francisco gay male community cares about these issues and that they can be effectively mobilized," he said.

It's not clear if there is a direct correlation between the drop in crystal meth use and HIV transmission, but according to DPH, San Francisco General Hospital reported late in December a 66 percent decrease in the number of crystal meth-related incidents among admitting patients in the emergency room as of November.

Not convinced

Other experts and community leaders who keep a watchful eye on substance use and abuse among gay and bisexual men aren't convinced by the recent data showing that there might be a renewed trend toward living clean and sober and enjoying the natural highs of sexual attraction and seduction.

"I think you have to look carefully at and be a little bit skeptical about some of these statistics," said Siever, who is co-chair of the Mayor's Task Force on Crystal Meth. He has been following gay and bisexual men's drug use and behavior for 15 years by providing direct and online services.

"There are often fluctuations in some of these statistics that don't necessarily mean they are on a long-term trend," he said.

Task force co-chair Steven Tierney agreed.

"There has been a heightened awareness about the potential risks of crystal meth use," said Tierney. "We set out to change the community norm that this was not just another innocent party drug – that this one was a little more dangerous – and that people should be careful. That's had a big impact."

Tierney believes that despite the drop in recorded crystal meth use and new HIV infection rates campaigns and various levels of specialized services are still urgently needed. According to Tierney there are high levels of relapse into addiction and there are communities that haven't been targeted with educational campaigns.

Siever added that his experience providing direct services to help people with substance abuse and addiction, in particular to crystal meth, as well as the visits to tweaker.org, demonstrates that there hasn't been a slowdown in the demand for services, but rather, a steady increase.

Researchers and substance abuse workers don't know what the reasons are for the sudden drop in the use of crystal meth and HIV transmission among gay and bisexual men.

Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who pushed for the task force, said that progress has been made in battling meth use.

"When we began there were six agencies providing services focusing on crystal meth addiction, now there are 34," Dufty said in an e-mail. "In direct funding we have increased from $400,000 to more than $1.8 million."

He added that the task force's work was instrumental in securing $10 million in state funding for crystal meth services throughout the state, including those that serve gay and bi men.

Dufty said that he is encouraged by the recent trend of "reduced crystal addictions," but that there "continues to be a tremendous need for services, information, and support."

McFarland speculated that one of the reasons could be due to a "cresting" off of a previous rise of use of crystal meth being reported. The report about crystal meth emergency room admittance by DPH suggests that this might be a possibility. Information provided by SFGH showed an 82 percent spike in crystal meth-related intake into the emergency room between 2004 and 2005 with a 67 percent decrease in 2006, lower than the number of people admitted in 2004.

Siever suggested that another potential explanation for the change in crystal meth behavior among gay and bisexual men is that with community campaigns sending various educational messages about crystal meth, as well as, people's experience watching friends and family members spiral into the addiction, a stigma might be developing making crystal not so sexy anymore.

One of the concerns about the drop in the statistics being reported is that while the numbers might be showing positive results due to the media and educational campaigns and direct outreach by social service agencies, there is the concern that people, due to the new stigma around crystal meth, might not be providing accurate information in community agency surveys and to healthcare workers.

The other issue Siever pointed out is that by having the MayorÕs Task Force on Crystal Meth focus its efforts on gay and bisexual men's use of crystal meth shed a new light on other communities that were previously not within people's minds about using the drug. One of the goals set forth by the task force is to explore and produce more educational materials, Web sites, and community campaigns that speak to people of color, women, transgenders, and other communities about crystal meth. At the same time the gay and bisexual male community isn't out of the dark. One year of a decrease doesn't signal a newfound trend.

"So, we've seen a decrease, but it doesn't mean that we are not also concerned about its ongoing use and infection rates," said Jason Riggs, communications director at the Stop AIDS Project.

To find out more about the ad campaign or information about crystal meth, visit www.tweaker.org. To participate in studies about crystal meth use, contact the Bump Project at (415) 554-9013 or visit www.sfbump.com.