30:30:30

Using the most accurate intelligence we can gather for London, GMHC believes there are 30 chemsex related ambulance callouts a month, 30 chemsex related ED (A&E) admissions a month and 30 chemsex related deaths a year. These figures combined is our best informed guestimate. When we made 30:30:30 in 2024 we expected pushback but the feedback has been that 30:30:30 are vastely underestimated. The trouble is we don’t truly know. We’ve just pieced together what we have. 

30:30:30 | Three Flying Piglets film for MEN R US | 2024 | 45s

Is there a chemsex crisis? 

Evidence shows chemsex is a real problem for some gay men in London, but not a universal crisis for all. For many, it’s occasional and manageable. For others, it leads to serious harms: overdoses, sexual-health risks, mental-health issues, disrupted HIV care, and sometimes death. Reports suggesting multiple suspected chemsex-related deaths per month in London point to genuine risk, even if the exact numbers are uncertain. What makes certainty difficult is poor data: national drug systems don’t track “chemsex” well, G isn’t reliably coded in emergency care, and use often happens in private settings where harms may never reach services.

So can we be “certain” it’s a crisis? Yes: for a vulnerable subgroup experiencing high harm, poor services, and preventable deaths. No:  if “crisis” implies most gay men are involved or harmed. A reasonable position: chemsex in London is a significant, ongoing public-health issue for those affected, requiring tailored harm reduction, better data, and services that match the realities of GBMSM’s lives.

GMHC’s response

When GMHC started in 2010, its goal was to provide health information for gay men living with HIV and Hepatitis C, safer drug use for three new drugs being used by gay men: ‘G’, crystal, and meph. Today, the term chemsex was coined, there’s effective treatment for Hepatitis C, and the health and wellbeing part of what we do is firmly established. 

Finding accurate data is challenging

• EDs (A&E)  can capture chemsex-related drugs but only when a clinician understands what they’re hearing and documents it clearly. There’s no dedicated coding for GHB/G BL, crystal meth, mephedrone, or chemsex as a presentation, so unless a staff member knows the terminology, asks the right questions, and writes it into the notes, the system defaults to vague categories like “poisoning,” “unknown substance,” or “amphetamine.” In other words: the capability exists, but the data is only as good as the clinician’s awareness and documentation.
• The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS or Met) is reluctant and/ or defensive about sharing data. It has a role to play to ensure a meaningful relationship with the LGBT+ community. Part of this relationship should include the sharing of relevant information to inform harm reduction by community organisations. The Met do not need to condone drug use to do this. Effective communication has faltered for reasons evidenced in the Casey Review: ”…the Met needs to make its external engagement more meaningful, listen more rather than being on ‘transmit’, and start to rebuild trust.”
• National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) wasn’t designed with chemsex in mind. Its drug categories are broad, lean to traditional treatment populations, and don’t capture the detail needed for GHB/GBL, crystal meph, and mephedrone; or or polydrug drug use (two or more ) and sex-linked patterns.
• Chemsex sits at the crossroads of sex, stigma, criminalisation, and indenty (being gay, queer and LGBT+) and distorts data collection in several ways: individuals minimise, hide, or reframe their use; clinicians avoid detailed questioning; and services shy away from recording sensitive information they don’t feel equipped to hold. Criminalisation makes disclosure risky. Stigma around drug use, gay sex, kink, HIV, and identity shuts people down. Many statutory and govenrment service systems still code through a heteronormative lens, so chemsex doesn’t fit their templates. Under-reporting, inconsistent recording, vague categories, and data that systematically under estimates the true scale and complexity of chemsex. 

In short: those most competent to measure it lack funding, and the systems with funding don’t ask the right questions.