Substance Use and Abuse Among Men Using the Internet Specifically to Find Partners for Unprotected Sex

Abstract

This study was based on a national random sample of 332 MSM who use the Internet to seek men with whom they can engage in unprotected sex. Data collection was conducted via telephone interviews between January 2008 and May 2009. Illegal drug use was highly prevalent in this population, particularly when compared to men in the general population: 85.2% of the men in the study versus 59.5% of men in the adult population reported lifetime use of an illegal drug, and 60.1% of the men in the study versus 9.9% of men in the adult population reported use of an illegal drug during the preceding 30 days. Substance abuse problems and drug dependence were also highly prevalent, with a sizable proportion of the men having unmet treatment needs. Most study participants (56.4%) reported a preference for having sex while under the influence of alcohol and/or other drugs, with the large majority of these persons (85.9%) expressing a preference for illegal drug use in that context. The author concludes that men who use the Internet to find partners for unprotected sex tend to have extensive drug use histories, and their experimentation with illegal drugs continues well into their 40s, 50s, and beyond. A sizable proportion of these men need substance abuse education, prevention services, intervention services, and/or drug treatment.

Keywords:

• drug use/abuse
• gay men
• Internet users
• MSM
• substance use/abuse

Acknowledgments

This research (officially entitled “Drug Use and HIV Risk Practices Sought by Men Who Have Sex with Other Men, and Who Use Internet Websites to Identify Potential Sexual Partners”) was supported by a grant (5R24DA019805) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The author wishes to acknowledge, with gratitude, the contributions made by Thomas P. Lambing to this study's data collection and data entry/cleaning efforts.

Notes

1. The questionnaire included scales used and validated by other researchers to measure such phenomena as self-esteem (Rosenberg 1965), depression (Radloff 1977), attitudes toward condom use (Brown 1984), condom use self-efficacy (Brafford & Beck 1991), childhood maltreatment experiences (Bernstein & Fink 1998), knowledge about HIV (Carey, Morrison-Beedy & Johnson 1997), locus of control regarding HIV safety (Wolitski et al. 2007), partner communication skills (McCroskey 1982), current life satisfaction (Diener et al. 1985), optimism about the future (Scheier & Carver 1985), impulsivity (Von Diemen et al. 2007), extent of “outness” as a gay or bisexual man (Mohr & Fassinger 2000), and perceptions of being stigmatized as a result of one's sexual orientation (Pinel 1999). Lifetime and recent substance use information was collected using a format very similar to that employed by the Risk Behavior Assessment (Needle et al.1995). Additional information about these scales and their psychometric properties in the present study may be obtained by contacting the author.

2. PNP stands for “party and play.” It is a behavior in which men get high together and then engage in sex with one another, stopping intermittently to boost their high with additional drug use before continuing with their sex act(s).