Russ wrote...

I'm pretty sure crystal meth is widely believed to suppress the immune
system.  As for advice, it doesn't matter if they are told to stop
doing the crystal and poppers any more than telling them to always use
condoms - they will completely ignore it.

What were you thinking?   Someone who grew up being told in the most
graphic terms that getting high and indiscrimately buttfucking half
the population of the Western Hemisphere will lead to HIV infection
is not going to suddenly care once he contracts the virus.

There has been a good deal of research done on various drugs such as
alcohol, heroin, methadone, crystal meth, viagra, ecstasy etc and HIV. As
you correctly state no direct casual connection has been found between
recreational drug use and AIDS or HIV.

However there is a great deal of data that shows the use of recreational
drugs does indeed increase the type of behavior that can cause HIV
infection. Mainly bad decisions about sexual risks are made by those under
the influence of recreational drugs.

Crystal Meth is a drug that has profound health effects on anyone who uses
it. There are many reasons for this some of which are that even
pharmaceutical grade Meth damages the bodies immune system, prolonged use
can cause paranoia, delusions, hallucinations, loss of teeth, hart problems
etc etc.

An additional problem in the street forms of Meth is the user has no idea
what they might be getting as far as chemical contaminants in the product
they buy. Due to the fact that street Meth is often cooked up by small
amateur operations with little or no knowledge about how to keep the product
free of contaminants.

Studies have also been done on how recreational drugs interact with
Antiretroviral drugs and this information is available on several websites.
Some recreational drugs when used at the same time as ARV drugs can show
increased blood levels of the drug because of how ARV drugs interact with
the recreational drug in the liver. Other recreational drugs can cause the
blood levels of ARV drugs to be reduced due to that same interaction in the
liver.

So to answer your question people who are HIV positive and on ARV should be
honest with their health care provider about there drug use or at the very
least get on the web and find out how their drug of choice interacts with
their meds. Yes HIV positive people are advised to avoid recreational drug
abuse including alcohol and tobacco. However just like in the public at
large this message is a difficult one for some people to follow.

Gary Stein