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Chemsex

Sex on specific drugs, mainly crystal meth, GHB/GBL and mephedrone, often in long sessions with several partners met on the apps.

Chemsex

Chemsex is sex on specific drugs, mainly crystal meth, GHB/GBL and mephedrone, usually among gay, bi and other men who have sex with men. The drugs keep you awake, horny and uninhibited for hours or days, and sessions often involve several partners met on the apps. A beer before a date is not chemsex, and neither is a sniff of poppers: the word is reserved for this particular cocktail and the scene around it.

In North America the same thing is more often called PnP, party and play; when the drugs are injected, it is slamming.

Where it comes from

The word grew out of the scene itself. David Stuart, the London drug and sexual health worker who did more than anyone to put chemsex on the medical map, said it came from the language of the hookup apps and websites, and preferred it to clinical jargon. He later wrote its history in an academic journal. The word went mainstream in 2014, when a study by Sigma Research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, commissioned by three south London boroughs, surveyed more than a thousand gay and bisexual men and found far higher use of mephedrone, GHB/GBL and crystal meth there than elsewhere in England.

"Chill at mine, chems welcome, no time wasters."A late-night app profile.

Why men do it

The 2014 study is still one of the most honest descriptions of the why. The drugs make sex longer, wilder and less self-conscious, and many men said exactly that; but many also said they used them to cover problems with self-esteem and self-confidence. For some it stays an occasional weekend; for others it becomes the only way they can have sex at all.

The health side

Gay sexual health services take a harm-reduction view: they don't preach, they help you stay alive and in control.

  • GHB/GBL is the dangerous one. The gap between a high and an overdose is small: measure every dose with a syringe, wait at least two hours between doses, and never mix it with alcohol.
  • Infections. Long sessions with several partners raise the risk of HIV and other STIs; PrEP, condoms, vaccinations and regular testing help, and if you weren't on PrEP, PEP within 72 hours.
  • Consent. A man too high to say yes can't say yes.
  • The head. Psychosis, paranoia, dependence and the comedown are real risks.
In real life

If someone can't be woken up, call an ambulance and say what he took. If you feel you're losing control of your use, sexual health clinics and specialist services for gay men see this every day and won't judge.

PnPSlammingPoppersPrEPGrindrBareback
Sources 4
  • iCaSH, East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust. "Chemsex." (accessed 19 October 2026). https://www.icash.nhs.uk/sex-and-relationships/chemsex/
  • Bourne, Adam, David Reid, Ford Hickson, Sergio Torres Rueda and Peter Weatherburn. The Chemsex Study: drug use in sexual settings among gay and bisexual men in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham. London: Sigma Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2014. https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/2197245
  • "Chemsex and gay men: Has the issue been overblown?" PinkNews, 7 April 2014. https://thepinknews.com/2014/04/07/chemsex-and-gay-men-has-the-issue-been-overblown/
  • Stuart, David. "Chemsex: origins of the word, a history of the phenomenon and a respect to the culture." Drugs and Alcohol Today 19, no. 1 (2019): 3-10. https://doi.org/10.1108/DAT-10-2018-0058
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