Willie Style

(reprinted from Andrewsullivan.com from a reader's email) - "I read your blog about the meth crisis among gay men. I am a psychiatrist in Atlanta and have a significant gay male population. Of all the mental health disorders I treat - including the most severe forms of psychosis and other affective disorders - meth dependence scares me the most. When I am approached for help by these poor souls, my heart sinks. There is the traditional psychosocial treatment (i.e., 12-step recovery programs), which is great, but I cannot conceive of a more addicting and destructive substance to curse mankind, so I worry that this is not enough. What's more, there is very little press about meth, in the straight or gay media, which leaves the susceptible with the tragic impression that this isn't such a big deal. Yet, the horror stories I have heard - mind you, I am a psychiatrist and I thought I had heard it all - make my knees shake with utter terror.The progress the gay community has made with HIV awareness, research and policy is miraculous. But I agree with you: it is all for naught unless we smother this monster to its evil core. That meth is a vector for HIV is a sad reality; I fear that its potential for total descruction makes it worse than any threat HIV/AIDS has ever presented. We need to see it for what it is: mean, nasty, dirty death."

This used to be big back home in Brownwood and I fear is returning as more and more get hooked.