One of Britain’s leading researchers on recreational drugs will be a special guest at an upcoming community forum in Sydney focusing on drug use in the LGBT community.

Dr Adam Bourne, Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, will give a presentation on drug and sex related trends in London and join a panel of local drug experts, researchers and community health representatives for Party Playgrounds: A Decade of Drugs In Gay Sydney – Changes, Impacts and What’s Next?, a FREE public forum in Erskineville which will delve into the LGBT community’s relationship with party drugs over the last 10 years and in the years ahead.

Presented by ACON, NSW’s leading HIV prevention, HIV support and LGBTI* health organisation, the forum will consider the longstanding history of drug use among LGBT people and how drug use in the community has transformed over the past 10 years. It will explore why drug use patterns have changed and whether there are likely to be further changes. Issues relating to sex, relationships and health will also be discussed.

Dr Bourne will be joined by Clinical Director of St Vincent’s Alcohol and Drug Service Dr Nadine Ezard, Associate Professor Garrett Prestage from the Kirby’s HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program, research fellow at the Centre for Social Research in Health at UNSW  Dr Toby Lea, and Associate Professor in Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney, Kane Race.

The forum aims to help the LGBT community to better understand the medical, sexual and social implications of contemporary drug use. The event also aims to improve the community’s capacity to reduce harm through increasing understanding of sex and sexual health issues relating to drug use as well as the stigma associated it.

Dr Bourne said that observations from the London experience could be used to understand the current and changing situation within Sydney: “Over the last 10 years there have been some key changes in the types of drugs and frequency with which people use drugs in London. Technological advances including smart phone applications have been a vehicle for changes to how people meet for sex and where our communities use drugs.”

Dr Lea added that through community engagement, researchers have been able to better comprehend how trends and patterns of use have changed locally: “We have seen some significant changes in drug use patterns in Sydney; most notably the Gay Community Period Survey shows that gay and bisexual men are using drugs commonly used in social settings such as ecstasy and speed less and less, which may in part be due to changing ways of engaging with the LGBT community.”

ACON CEO Nicolas Parkhill says the forum will provide an important opportunity to discuss a sensitive issue within the LGBT community: “From the way our communities party to the way we manage our drug use, history has shown that LGBT people use drugs differently. One thing that has always existed is a culture of care and this is why it’s important to stay informed and to keep talking amongst ourselves as a community. That’s why this forum is so important.”

WHAT:  Party Playgrounds: A Decade of Drugs In Gay Sydney – Changes, Impacts and What’s Next?

WHEN: Thursday 27 October | 7pm – 9PM

WHERE: The Imperial Hotel, 35 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville 2043

COST: FREE

INFO/RSVP: www.aconhealth.org.au/party_playgrounds_forum

ENDS | *LGBTI = Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex

For more information please contact:

David Alexander, ACON Media and Communications Officer

E: dalexander@acon.org.au   T: +61 (02) 9206 2044   M: +61 (0)428 477 042