{"id":54847,"date":"2026-10-29T00:03:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T00:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/?p=54847"},"modified":"2026-10-29T10:33:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T10:33:39","slug":"3rd-london-conference-on-chemsex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/54847","title":{"rendered":"3rd London Chemsex Conference: An expanding network of excellent but under-funded services and an urgent need for data"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simon Collins, HIV i-Base<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 14 October 2026, more than 200 health workers attended the community-organised 3rd London Chemsex Conference. [1]<\/strong><\/p>\n

The programme included 17 short 15-minute presentations covering a diverse range of issues but with an emphasis on how to develop and improve chemsex services in London.<\/p>\n

Recurrent themes included limited funding, developing greater awareness in mainstream services, the importance of involving direct experience in services and current barriers to accessing care.<\/p>\n

Selected summaries below show the complex network of services, which remain under-funded, and that are often provided by community organisations rather than from mainstream NHS, emergency and social services.<\/p>\n

Introduction: engagement and funding<\/h2>\n

Patriic Gayle, a long-time chemsex activist at the Gay Men’s Health Collective (GMHC) (gaymenshealthcollective.co.uk<\/a>), opened the meeting with an overview of the chemsex landscape in London. He also started by remembering Edward Cornes, a young student who died in 2021, and whose case was publicised because of the systematic failure of services that had no awareness of the realities of chemsex at a community level.<\/p>\n

This included continued homophobia, including from the police, which continues to stop people from approaching the institutions and services that should be there to help them.<\/p>\n

Although chemsex is now recognised in the new HIV Action Plan, the goals to achieve zero new HIV infections by 2030 will never be reached if chemsex remains an unaddressed outlier, and many specific services are not budgeted for.<\/p>\n

Patriic talked about the the lack of awareness within key mainstream services and called out the lack of formal engagement from key departments, including the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), who didn’t attend the conference.<\/p>\n

Patriic called about four guidelines for change.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. To provide connected services across London, rather than still depending on borough-based provisions, largely dependent on community services. This involves recognising that chemsex occurs in every London borough.<\/li>\n
  2. For chemsex funding to be recognised as being as being a crucial a part of HIV prevention. He noted that lthough there are a handful of excellent commissioners, they are a minority.<\/li>\n
  3. To develop and provide detox services.<\/li>\n
  4. To actively address the continued fear in the community of accessing ambulance, police and 999 services.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Living and lived experience as experts within services<\/h2>\n

    The importance of community involvement and lived experience as being a foundation of expert care was a theme throughout the day – and this also included the role of \u2018living’ experience.<\/p>\n

    As a community activist involved in trans and queer nightlife, Seba Dyer (Safe Only CIC) (safeonly.co.uk<\/a>) talked with concern about the social acceptability in white male gay culture to shun friends in an overdose crisis for ruining their night and who continue to party rather than help.<\/p>\n

    Seba also challenged the lack of recognition given to ongoing living experience of chemsex in supporting services – rather than just historical lived experience that is usually stressed.<\/p>\n

    People who are still actively involved with chemsex can have more current knowledge about risks, language, and street culture that can all be essential when trying to engage with people who need support. This questions the common framework that requires community experts to be \u2018respectable\u2019 by now being in recovery.<\/p>\n

    Instead, Seba argued that services should be developed in partnerships that involve academic, medical, lived and living experiences rather than just marketing services as being non-judgemental.<\/p>\n

    Dan Ady from Turning Point (turning-point.co.uk<\/a>) then talked about how services that implicitly assume a framework of heterosexual normality will continue to exclude people from LGBTQ+ communities from engaging and accessing care. This includes recognising that many of these services were never designed by us or for us.<\/p>\n

    Simple things like the choice of posters, leaflets and other materials in a waiting room contribute to whether a space will feel welcoming and inclusive, as will the language used, For example, if chemsex is only judged as a negative activity rather than acknowledging the many positive experiences that many people have, this will add to the delay that most people experience before connecting to care.<\/p>\n

    Ben Kaye, now with Camden services, talked about how his personal experience helped develop support services that he had once sought – and expanded on the knowledge and approaches needed from the perspective of a mainstream service provider. This includes having confidence in cultural competences when engaging with clients.<\/p>\n

    For example, people often answer ‘No\u2019 if asked whether they inject drugs, but then say later that they only slam when having sex, without this being a contradiction for them. This example shows the importance of talking about behaviours rather than labels.<\/p>\n

    Ben also explained how this is also an important time to expand local learning to national projects. The increasing demands for LGBTQ+ services needs training and investments throughout a health team – and not just rely on the experiences of one LGBTQ+ person on the team.<\/p>\n

    Robert Fletcher, from the SASH service (sashlondon.org<\/a>) developed in Chelsea and Hammersmith, spoke movingly of the impact of being diagnosed with HIV more than 20 years ago, during the first ten years of which he avoided sex for fear of onward transmission to his partners.<\/p>\n

    Awareness of U=U then overlapped with an extended period when chemsex included daily slamming, before connecting with the late David Stuart at the Antidote project at London Friend. Since then, Robert has continued to volunteer for many years, always wanting to help other people but still always feeling he should be doing more.<\/p>\n

    Jimmy Hutton, also talked about his lived and living experiences when training as a counsellor for Antidote and how peer led recovery using a chemsex-modified 12-step programme supported him to now be clean from alcohol and drugs for more than six years.<\/p>\n

    Referring agin to the importance of language and cultural differences to programmes for heroin and alcohol services, many LGBTQ+ people don\u2019t identify as being addicted when drug use is either intermittent or only when having sex.<\/p>\n

    However, organisations like Crystal Meth Anonymous UK (crystalmeth.org.uk<\/a>) are perhaps easier to approach because they provide a setting that understand the specific issues of sex, sexuality, shame, isolation, loneliness and porn in addition to physical issues of addiction and sleep deprivation etc. They also generate a supportive structure to develop friendships outside of meetings with others who have experience of similar shared trauma.<\/p>\n

    In summary, Jimmy said the getting clean is very different to staying clean \u2013 which involves developing a network of belonging, so that recovery can be a place that someone wants to live in.<\/p>\n

    Perspectives from professional services<\/h2>\n

    The meeting also included presentations from professionals who do not have direct personal experience of chemsex.<\/p>\n

    Mauricio Alvarez is a psychologist providing practical support services at the All East London Sexual Health Service in East London (alleast.nhs.uk<\/a>).<\/p>\n

    The baseline for these services includes a balance between protecting someone from harm and the potential to be a source of harm. This includes the positive and negative impact from sectioning someone at risk which will then involve permanent health records, the risk of coercion vs negligence, and the need to change behaviour vs the ambivalence of whether the urgency needs an immediate intervention or whether this could be delayed to allow for agency.<\/p>\n

    Mauricio summarised this balance using three R’s.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Readiness.<\/strong> This involves a balance of collusion (with a non-judgemental sex-positive approach) vs intrusion (proactive , paternal, \u2018reality check\u2019).<\/li>\n
    2. Reach.<\/strong> This involes looking at who is being included (from potentially networking everyone to involving less care where separate services are provided in silo).<\/li>\n
    3. Rationale.<\/strong> This involves having a reflective proactive with awareness of the patterns fo behaviour that professionals adopt around a client.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Other issues related to safeguarding from an NHS perspective, including the misuse of power, were discussed by Dr Mike Yates from Dean Street Clinic.<\/p>\n

      This includes recognise that safeguarding, even when trying to reduce risks, is not always a benevolent act and that it has the potential to cause significant harm. For example, the experience of being sectioned to reduce the short-term risk of self-harm, can also involve further trauma that could complicate long-term care.<\/p>\n

      As there is no single safeguarding template for use in cases of sexualised drug-use, and the context of each situation needs to be understood, including the potential for changing consent. Other than when legal boundaries are clearly involved, interventions need to focus on supporting agency in each case.<\/p>\n

      The delay in accessing effective interventions is often related to a distrust of services (discussed above) and it commonly takes an average of 2\u20135 years for individuals to develop confidence to access support.<\/p>\n

      While most chemsex doesn\u2019t involve harm, health practitioners also need to meet the protections for adults at risk of abuse developed in the Care Act (2014). [2]<\/p>\n

      These include: taking part in or witnessing sexual abuse, domestic abuse, overdosing, and exploitation where someone is being manipulated for the benefit of others.<\/p>\n

      Three issues are important for the working with the Care Act.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Capacity<\/strong> – and whether someone is able to decide for themselves. If this is yes, then this isn\u2019t an issue of safeguarding but a chance to learn more.<\/li>\n
      2. Who is in control?<\/strong> If this is not the individual concerned and they have no space to choose, this also raises issues of agency.<\/li>\n
      3. Consequences from intervening<\/strong> (or not) which can also include sexual abuse. The period of comedown after chemsex can also be a window period to check for suicide risk.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Open questions that can support someone deciding to access care include: \u2018Have you ever had experiences that you can\u2019t explain or remember?\u2019 and \u2018Have you ever feared for your safety?\u2019.<\/p>\n

        Except in circumstances where consent is not possible (for example, with children, or with adult dementia), provisions in the Care Act are to work \u2018with\u2019 someone and not \u2018on\u2019 someone.<\/p>\n

        Dr Dana Beale talked the intersection of chemsex, homelessness and the LGBT+ community from her experience as a GP at\u00a0Great Chapel Street Medical Centre (greatchapelst.org.uk<\/a>). This specialist service has provided care for people experiencing homelessness in Westminster since 1978. Now at Frith Street in Soho, the service cares for more than 500 people including referrals from the LGBTQ+ Outside Project (lgbtiqoutside.org<\/a>).<\/p>\n

        This talk focussed on the many routes that people have in and out of homelessness and that there is limited data on LGBTQ+ experiences since the last report to look at this was in 2019. Helping people to navigate multiple services is difficult, covering not just housing but also benefits, mental health, detox and helping people who are being defined as being ‘intentionally homeless\u2019 even when this was driven by domestic violence.<\/p>\n

        Effective services often need to include some level of open access rather than timed appointments and being able to both listen and develop back up plans to help reinforce the importance of hope once someone has been able to ask for help.<\/p>\n

        Dr Paul Driscoll-Evans and Nathalie Reeves from Kent County Council described the recent development of chemsex services to cover a large urban, rural and coastal population of more than four million people living in Kent. Results from a needs assessment survey in 2025 (when cases generally involved referrals to London clinics) showed that chemsex was not just a sexual health issue and led to the development of new local services.<\/p>\n

        Engagement with the police and ambulance services<\/h2>\n

        Ray Thomas from the Antidote services at London Friend talked about supporting chemsex clients within the criminal justice system, which involves helping hundreds of people every year. Whatever the initial offence, chemsex-related cases can rarely be understood in isolation and they need specialist LGBTQ+ chemsex support.<\/p>\n

        Mainstream services are still likely to be highly judgemental, failing to understand that many people might still be using chems and might have no memory of the event – and that there might be years of delay from the time to the arrest to any criminal conviction.<\/p>\n

        These themes were expanded to cover proving care for someone in custody, presented by Eoin Bradley from the Metropolitan Police Service and custody nurse practitioner Kersti Burman. This includes recognising cases of GHB\/GBL withdrawal and providing appropriate care. Since 2020 there is a growing awareness of the complexity of chemsex-related emergencies (that previously only focussed on heroin and alcohol withdrawal).<\/p>\n

        Heavy users of GHB\/GBL can range from dosing 2 \u00a03 times an hour 0r every 2 – 3 hours) can lead to acute withdrawal when people can become very rapidly unwell.<\/p>\n

        Recognising withdrawal symptoms is essential in order to be able to prioritise receiving emergency hospital care including diazapam to manage symptoms before being taken into custody. Educating non-medical staff is both essential and effective, especially when accessing someone\u2019s fitness to be interviewed.<\/p>\n

        The critical role of the ambulance service and it\u2019s role in providing front-line support in acute emergencies, including overdose, withdrawal and acute psychosis was the focus of an longer interview with Peter Kingsley who has more than 24 years experience working with the London Ambulance Service and who has been based in Westminster since 2017 where he has developed greater awareness of chemsex within the service.<\/p>\n

        Many of the people seen can be in a chronic cycle of meth-induced psychosis where they might contact emergency services where they can be seen, admitted and then discharged several times a day.<\/p>\n

        The service has worked closely with GMHC over the last four years and probably has the most accurate awareness of the increasing incidence of chemsex-related calls, which unfortunately still remain largely anecdotal and unpublished. A single ambulance service covers the whole of Greater London compared to 26 health trusts and 3 police services. This service has a large reach and has the unique opportunity to help in situations that are both intense and relatively brief.<\/p>\n

        Peter talked about the complexity of an emergency chemsex call where one partner from a social-media hook-up might be unconscious and the other might now have acute awareness. As many calls don\u2019t always result in hospital admissions, this might also be the only chance to engage people to healthcare services.<\/p>\n

        Challenges include that although the ambulance service sees the majority of chemsex-related emergencies, they account for only 0.2% of the calls they receive every day (roughly 10 of the 6000) so are not seen as a priority for funding, compared to calls related, for example, to COVID or rad accidents. However, these chemsex calls will include live-saving emergencies that should override any fear of calling 999.<\/p>\n

        This was perhaps the most important summary from this talk, together with information that an ambulance call often doesn\u2019t need to involve the police.<\/p>\n

        One of the last presentations of the workshop returned to the case of Edward Comes to show the extent of institutional homophobia within the police service. Fiona Hamilton is the Chief Reporter at The Times who had covered the Stephen Port that six years ago led to the police admitting systematic \u2018failings across the board\u2019. [3, 4]<\/p>\n

        Edward was a 19 year-old student who after a night out with friends was found dead the next morning in a 2-star London hotel with high blood levels of GHB and evidence supporting him being the victim of an horrific assault. Despite compelling evidence of serious incompetence by the Metropolitan Police, including manipulation of contradictory evidence, the initial inquest report the case as a \u2019non-suspicious death\u2019.<\/p>\n

        With the support of Edward\u2019s parents, who refused to accept this verdict, and a social media campaign, investigative reporting showed a persistent level of cover-up by the police that led to the Inquest being reopened in June 2026 and the formal apologies by the police who recognised that the case had not been appropriately handled.<\/p>\n

        Next steps for chemsex services in London<\/h2>\n

        The final presentation at the workshop was from activist Ben Collins from ReShape (reshapeorg.com<\/a>) who previously developed and ran three international chemsex conferences (in London in 2016, Berlin in 2018 and Paris in 2019).<\/p>\n

        This talk controversially presented the community responses to chemsex in the UK as being fragmented compared to other European cities – and that this was due to deliberate political approaches that divided organisations rather than bringing them together.<\/p>\n

        Berlin, for example, developed a close network of over 20 clinics and organisations and a network of six clinics across France was developed by the Paris-based NGO Aides. By comparison, although London developed chemsex services earlier, competitive funding resulted in services being developed in silos rather than collaboratively.<\/p>\n

        This analysis was supported by Patriic Gayle when closing the workshop: \u201cWe don\u2019t all need to be doing the same thing, but we do all need to be pulling together\u201d but that this also depended on secure long-term funding, and that the current system can be changed.<\/p>\n

        The conference was organised by Gay men\u2019s Health Collective (GMHC) and Antidote at London Friend.<\/p>\n

        comment<\/h3>\n

        This excellent meeting focussed on current practice of many community organisations with practical lessons for developing better care for people needing support related to chemsex.<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Sustaining funding for these services though will depend on better data showing the level of need, and this was not directly addressed during the workshop.<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Anecdotally. the London Ambulance Service estimates it answers at least one chemsex-related emergency call out every day and the Metropolitan Polices reported in December 2024 that were approximately three chemsex-related deaths every month. [5]<\/strong><\/p>\n

        The response by the Metropolitan Police to a Freedom of Information request included that 34 deaths were likely to be related to chemsex in 2023, but these data are not routinely published. [6]<\/strong><\/p>\n

        So more than 20 years after chemsex was linked to deaths among gay and bisexual men in London, accurate data is still not available.<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Earlier this year, a retrospective review of A&E admissions at King\u2019s College Hospital in South London with ICD-10 codes (for intoxication, recreational drug use and drug-induced psychosis) included 48\/177 (27%) cases related to chemsex. Roughly half (25\/48) had physical injuries or medical complications and 23\/48 presented with psychosis, suicidal ideation, self-harm or behavioural complications. [7, 8]<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Of these, 25% were people living with HIV half of whom had disconnected from HIV care often reporting a previous history of assault and STIs. The median viral load and CD4 count of those disconnected from care was 250000 copies\/mL and 250 cells\/uL respectively.<\/strong><\/p>\n

        This study needs to be repeated in other major London hospitals to generate data that is urgently needed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

        References<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. GMHC. 3rd London Conference on Chemsex. 14 October 2026.
          \n          https:\/\/gaymenshealthcollective.co.uk\/london-chemsex-conference-2026<\/a><\/li>\n
        2. Care Act (2014). Safeguarding Adults at Risk of Abuse.
          \n          https:\/\/www.legislation.gov.uk\/ukpga\/2014\/23\/part\/1\/crossheading\/safeguarding-adults-at-risk-of-abuse-or-neglect<\/a><\/li>\n
        3. IOPC. Investigation into Met’s handling of Edward Cornes\u2019 death. (15 July 2026).
          \n          https:\/\/www.policeconduct.gov.uk\/news\/investigation-mets-handling-edward-cornes-death<\/a><\/li>\n
        4. ITV news. Met Police apologise for failures in handling gay student’s death following ITV News investigation. (29 June 2026)
          \n          https:\/\/www.itv.com\/news\/2026-06-29\/met-police-apologise-for-failures-in-handling-19-year-old-gay-students-death<\/a><\/li>\n
        5. Metropolitan Police. Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.037794.
          \n          https:\/\/www.met.police.uk\/foi-ai\/metropolitan-police\/disclosure-2024\/may-2024\/details-london-chemsex-conference\/<\/a><\/li>\n
        6. Metropolitan Police. Chemsex-related crime. (7 December 2024).
          \n          https:\/\/www.college.police.uk\/article\/chemsex-related-crime<\/a><\/li>\n
        7. BHIVA 2026: Chemsex data service needs and how health workers can help . HTB (1 June 2026).
          \n          https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/54000<\/a><\/li>\n
        8. Fitzgerald N. The impact of harmful chemsex. Talk as part of the Chemsex Uncovered lunchtime workshop, 6th BHIVA\/BASHH Joint Conference 27-29 April 2026. Reported in HTB.
          \n          https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/54000<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Simon Collins, HIV i-Base On 14 October 2026, more than 200 health workers attended the community-organised 3rd London Chemsex Conference. [1] The programme included 17 short 15-minute presentations covering a diverse range of issues but with an emphasis on how …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4,10,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-reports","category-conference-reports","category-transmission-and-prevention","category-activism-advocacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54847"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54860,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54847\/revisions\/54860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}