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Safer chemsex guide introduction

With some minor edits, this is a copy of our Safer Chemsex booklet (May 2025, 11th edition) included in our PIP PAC safer chemsex packs and Safer 2 packs (2025). The successor to Safer 1*, the Safer 2 pack has been produced to help you stay safer and signpost to the support you may need, when you need it.

The pack has been updated and ‘Using G’, ‘Support Pathways’, ‘Self Care’, and ‘Health and Wellbeing’ are new, following feedback and suggestions. While there’s a focus on chems, many health issues addressed here affect us all.

We’re not health professionals, rather gay men passionate about our health and wellbeing—some with direct experience of chems, problematic drug use, and recovery. This pack has been edited, tweaked and proofed by peers, shags, allies, organisations and services, who have given their time generously at every turn.**

There is no escaping it, we continue to live in tough times and the health support we need may be difficult to find and access. However, we hope the information here will point you in the right direction.

Safer 2 is our take on being gay and queer today, joining up the dots of our health and well-being. It’s not perfect, it’s sometimes messy, but it’s ours.

Hope
We continue to see unhelpful reporting on chemsex in the media and bleak narratives by some organisations. Yes, navigating support can be challenging [shit] but over the past year, harm reduction and support has been revitalised in London with services and commissioning bodies working better together—with many LGBT+ staff and volunteers (some in recovery) at the forefront of this change. Safer 2 is part of this.

Though our LGBT+ paths and life experiences vary, many of us face shared challenges: from phobias and heteronormativity to discrimination; stigma; hate crimes; a lack of dedicated support; and long waits for treatment. While this pack was produced by gay men, we hope there is something useful for everyone.

Words of caution
Not all gay men use drugs, or do so for sex, or in problematic ways. The needs of gay men are not best served by suggesting chemsex is universal. In fact, suggesting it’s universal runs the risk of giving the impression that it is both inevitable and impossible to escape.***

Letters and words
LGBT+ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender, with the plus sign (‘+’) acknowledging Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and other identities not captured by these letters. It’s an umbrella term for the community, with several variations. Safer 2 has chosen to use LGBT+

When we say ‘gay men’, we include queer, bisexual, men who have sex with men, and those who don’t like labels. We see you. We hear you. We love you.

The small print
Safer 2 pack information is provided for educational and harm reduction purposes only. It is not medical advice and does not encourage or condone drug use. Any reliance you place on the information supplied here is at your own risk.

Thank you
Special thanks to Release, Injecting Advice, Global Drug Survey and Exchange Supplies. Rather than re-invent the wheel, extracts from “Slamming Dos and Don’ts” by Mainline (Netherlands), and content from Injecting Advice, and Exchange Supplies have been adapted, with their kind permissions. Stunning illustrations by Walter Walrus.