 | ||
Party and play (PNP and PnP) is a subculture of recreational drug users who engage in high-risk sexual activities under the influence of drugs within groups. It is also called chemsex and it is described "as an enormous risk."
Contents
The term is commonly used by and associated with gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM). The drug of choice is typically methamphetamine, known as tina in the gay community, but other drugs are also used, such as mephedrone, GHB, and GBL.
Those participating in "party and play" gatherings have a higher rate of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases by having unprotected anal sex with large numbers of sexual partners.
Participants
Methamphetamine is often used recreationally for its effects as a potent aphrodisiac, euphoriant, and stimulant. It has been further described that "an entire subculture known as party and play is based around methamphetamine use." Gay men belonging to this subculture will typically meet up through internet dating sites to have sex. On such sites, men often include notations such as "chems" or "PNP". Since stimulant drugs such as methamphetamine drastically delay the need for sleep, increase sexual arousal, and tend to inhibit ejaculation, PNP sexual encounters can continue for many hours. Methamphetamine taken in excess of amounts prescribed or recommended will prolong symptoms of intoxication for up to eight hours In some cases, these sexual encounters will sometimes occur continuously for several days along with repeated methamphetamine use. The crash following the use of methamphetamine in this manner is very often severe, with marked hypersomnia.
Internet posts by men seeking PNP experiences often resort to slang to identify what drug they are partying with.
These drugs tend to inhibit penile erection, a phenomenon known by the slang term crystal dick. Consequently, many men who engage in PNP use erectile dysfunction drugs such as sildenafil, vardenafil, and tadalafil.
For some PNP participants, substance use may facilitate a process of "cognitive disengagement" from the fears and stipulations associated with sex in the time of HIV/AIDS. Popular discourses of "disinhibition" provide a commonly accepted alibi for activities engaged in when under the influence of substances.
Medical risks
Aside from the inherent risks involved with drug use, health officials have found a strong correlation between drug use and unsafe sex practices. The practice has been credited with the emergence of a new, more virulent form of HIV. The strain has been described as having the ability to produce AIDS symptoms in as little as four months. As such, PNP practices are cited as the cause of rising HIV rates in the gay and bisexual male community and other men who have sex with men. San Francisco's Stop AIDS Project and the Mayor of San Francisco's Crystal Meth Task Force have reduced methamphetamine use from 18% in 2003 to 10% in 2005 of gay and bisexual San Franciscans PNPing. The STOP AIDS Project has been heavily involved due to the common link between methamphetamine use and sex.
The same drug-induced loss of inhibitions makes PNP enthusiasts more vulnerable to more immediate threats, such as robbery, date rape, or assault by someone whom they meet for sex. The term party and play - and pay has emerged as a warning that partying and playing leads to bareback sex which increases the chances of contracting HIV and may result in other consequences such as neurological damage and resistance to HIV drugs.
Methamphetamine can cause sores and abrasions in the mouth which can turn typically low-HIV-risk sex acts such as oral sex into very-high-risk sexual activity.
Statistics
Men who PNP with methamphetamine, cocaine, MDMA, and ketamine are twice as likely to have unprotected sex (meaning sex without using a condom), according to British research from 2006. The study also found that up to 20% of gay men from central London gyms had tried methamphetamine, the drug most associated with PNPing.
History and cultural significance
Subcultures of psychoactive drug use have long existed within urban gay communities, since the disco era and before. These substances have been used for dancing, socializing, communal celebration and other purposes. The rise of online websites and hookup apps in the 1990s gave men new ways of cruising and meeting sexual partners, including the ability to arrange private sexual gatherings in their homes.
From the early 2000s, historic venues of gay socialization such as bars, clubs, and dance events reduced in number in response to a range of factors, including gentrification, zoning laws, licensing restrictions, policing and the increasing popularity of digital technologies for sexual and social purposes.
In this context, PNP emerged as an alternative form of sexualized partying that enabled participants to avoid the increasingly regulated nature of public space. Newly popular drugs such as methamphetamine and GHB/GBL replaced dance drugs such as ecstasy within this context and are typically valued for their sexual effects, reducing inhibitions and increasing sexual confidence.
While PNP sessions tend to be organized around sex, there is some evidence that they can serve a range of social purposes for their participants, including the opportunity to meet other gay men, become friends, and engage in erotic play and experimentation. In some instances, PNP sessions play a part in the formation of loose social networks that are valued and relied upon by participants. For other men, increasing reliance on hookup apps and websites to arrange sex may result in a sense of isolation that may exacerbate the risk of drug dependence, especially in the context of a lack of other venues for gay socializing and sexual community-formation.