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Marketing exec who nearly overdosed on pills before chemsex recalls: I couldn’t control my body, I was BOILING INSIDE
HE KNOWS that the hit is about to come when his heart starts to pound faster.
Tiny sweat beads form on his forehead. His palms slowly turn moist and there’s a dryness in his mouth.
Soon he will perspire profusely and feel as though he has a fever.
This is Mike’s regular dance with chemsex, which to the layman is sex while under the influence of narcotics.
It is a deadly mix. The drugs often have dubious origins and sometimes contain certain chemicals to give a better kick—chemicals that can kill.
Abusers also engage in casual sex while highand often without protection.
Add alcohol, which they also consume copiously, and you have a recipe for disaster.
People like Mike know the risks but they don’t care.
The jet-setting foreigner who is based in Taiwan visits Singapore regularly, combines Viagra and Ecstasy, a controlled drug, to spice up his sex life when he picks up women in clubs overseas.
Locally, those who dabble in the deadly mix of alcohol, illegal drugs, sex pills and casual sex do so in small, trusted circles, Mike said.
All this despite many health warnings from the authorities.
Too often, someone goes over the edge.
Last September, Mr Francis Wee Chin Wah, 43, died after taking a cocktail of sex-enhancement pills and hard drugs.
He was found naked on his bed while his male lover, Mr Eric Sin, was barely alive when he was found under the bed.
At his home in River Valley, the authorities found ketamine, different types of sex enhancement pills and pills used to treat gastric ulcers, flu and allergies.
Mr Wee’s death occurred 17 months after a 26-year-old man died under similar circumstances.
Both tragedies offer a glimpse into the dangerous chemsex lifestyle.
Mike himself came close to losing his life two years ago.
The marketing executive in his 30s said: “It was a mistake taking more than three Es (Ecstasy pills) in one hour. I was on the verge of ‘ODing’ (overdosing) and I couldn’t control my bodily movements. It felt as if I was boiling inside.”
Fortunately for Mike, a few friends managed to revive him and cool him down with ice packs. They also gave him a lot of water to drink as he was dehydrated.
He said his friends said he gave them a big scare and they still remind him of what had happened. But even the deaths and his own close shave won’t stop Mike from flirting with danger.
He said: “It’s a hard habit to kick because sex now is on a higher plane.”
Mr Lionel Lee, Action for Aids’ executive director, has toldThe Straits Times previously that such drugs “impair judgment and many then engage in risky behaviour such as barebacking” (having sex without condoms).
News of Mr Wee’s death has stirred talk in local forums and in the community, said Don, a gay man who has dabbled in chemsex.
He said: “Every time there’s a death, it scares the (chemsex) community. But the fear is not of death itself because every one think she is invincible.
“Sadly, they fear more of getting caught by the authorities than dying from of a drug overdose.”
The needless deaths are soon forgotten and the drug abusers go back to their old ways, said Don, 33, a business executive.
It’s not just a problem here.
Dr Michael Ross, of the World Health Organisation Centre for Health Promotion and Prevention Research at the University of Texas, did two studies, in 1990 and 1992, on Sydney’s two main circuit parties, the Mardi Gras and Sleaze Ball.
What his team learnt dismayed them. A heady mix of alcohol, drugs and euphoria led to some men lowering their guard.
Dr Ross told The New Paper in an earlier interview: “Drugs such as crystal meth and ketamine act as a form of aphrodisiac that encourages risky behaviour.”
The men had unprotected sex with strangers. Only a few were involved, but they passed on the HIVvirus from party to party.
Similar studies by the US Centre for Disease Control and health boards in San Francisco and Toronto had similar conclusions: Drug and alcohol use at such parties were encouraging party-goers to be less inhibited about having high-risk sex.
Don said he picked up the culture of mixing drugs and sex at private parties and clubs during frequent visits to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
Male users often mix party drugs like Ecstasy with sex enhancement drugs because the former often prevent them from having an erection, Don said.
Taking sex pills reverses this condition. The effect can last for about an hour or two depending on the person’s health, Don said.
 But the dangers of mixing the drugs are obvious.
In response to queries from The New Paper, the Health Sciences Authority pointed to a study by Associate Professor Tchoyoson Lim, a senior consultant neuroradiologist at the National Neuroscience Institute.
His 2008 study looked at, for the first time, how consumption of illegal sexual enhancement products can cause severe brain damage.
He said then: “The study is important as it shows how the brain is damaged by consumption of these adulterated illegal sex drugs.We hope to highlight the danger of such products to the public.
“We strongly reiterate the advisory issued by HSA to consumers not to purchase these drugs from dubious sources and that such illegal health products can cause permanent disability and death.”
While illegal, and often dangerous, copies of sex pills are readily available from discreet sources in Geylang or through online orders.
Getting controlled drugs like Ecstasy and ketamine is difficult. Added Don: “Supply is limited. But getting them is not impossible. Supplies sometimes make it across (from neighbouring countries).”
And how people look for willing partners may surprise the uninitiated.
They post advertisements on websites using cryptic messages which seem harmless at first glance.
Messages like “anybody want to chill out?”, “plug and play” or let’s have “beer” are hints that drugs will be available during the session.
In the end, whether you’re popping a genuine pill or a dud laced with dangerous chemicals, it’s all a gamble, Don and Mike said.
It’s all about limiting the risks by doing it with people you trust, said Don.
Mike said: “You need to be with experienced people to have a trouble-free chemsex session. You don’t want to go so far that they can’t rein you in.
“As for thosewhohave died, like Francis, it was probably due to their inexperience.”
But the amount of drugs seized from Mr Wee’s River Valley home suggested that he was no novice.
So even regulars like Mr Wee have flirted with death and lost.
HSA revealed that interviews with patients who had consumed such drugs showed that some did not consider the risks.
Some believed they were healthy and would not fall sick. Others said the pills they took looked like the “ones sold by doctors” so they thought it was safe.
HSA cautions that the effects of illegal aphrodisiac products can be “extremely debilitating”.
“We have seen cases of patients who have become permanently immobile, uncommunicative and had to be put on tube feeding. Several of these have died,” it said.
Under the Poisons Act, anyone found guilty of importing and possessing fake or illegal drugs can be jailed up to two years and finedupto $10,000.
Anyone caught taking or possessing illegal drugs, such as cannabis, cocaine, Ecstasy, heroin and ketamine, can be jailed up to 10 years andand fined upto $20,000.
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