‘What helps to keep it under control?’: Studying the experiences of gay/bisexual men who take drugs on a controlled basis when clubbing

Abstract

BackgroundControlled drug use has been described by previous researchers however few such studies explored the clubbing or gay/bisexual populations. Research into gay/bisexual men’s drug-taking fails to acknowledge the possibilities of controlled drug use. This study takes a qualitative approach to the data in an attempt to explore the phenomenon as it exists.MethodEight men who identified as gay/bisexual and took drugs on a controlled basis participated in semi-structured interviews. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the data, indicating themes emerging from the participants’ communicated experiences.ResultsAnalysis revealed a significant theme related to control and organisation, depicting how participants maintained a sense of control over their drug use and what helped this sense of control in use. Results show that not all gay/bisexual men’s drug use follows a usage-addiction pattern and that controlled drug use is possible. Participants indicated that they were able to control their drug use through an interaction of personality traits, social factors and self-knowledge.ConclusionThe research enhances the understanding of controlled drug use, especially within the gay/bisexual clubbing sub-culture. Furthermore, it clarifies strategies that could be useful for other drug-taking populations who wish to control their drug use. The cycle of and reasons for the drug-taking behaviour are possible routes for further research.