Peek: Inside the Private World of Public Sex by Joseph Couture

Author:Joseph Couture
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Sociology, Men's Studies, Social Science, General, Gay Studies, Erotica, Fiction
ISBN: 9781136575792
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2008-02-25T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

The Love Drug: Or Foolishly

Learning to Love Drugs for Love

No book on public gay sex would be complete without a section on the mysterious little brown bottle of liquid you will often find guys carrying around bathhouses and sex clubs. They're called “poppers,” and they aid sexual enjoyment.

Lots of guys swear by them, claiming they enhance everything from the pleasure of anal sex to orgasm. I can attest to the joys of them myself. There's only problem: poppers are an illicit street drug, and like with all drugs, have side effects. For many years I delighted using them without hesitation or question, but as I've matured and started getting a little more health conscious, I wanted to know more about exactly what they were doing to my body.

Let me tell you right off the top that researching this subject has been very difficult, as I discovered when I originally researched this subject for an article in The Guide magazine a few years ago. Few drug experts and legal officials had even heard of poppers, and the research is scant and often incomplete. I was able to find answers to some of my questions, and I'm sorry to say that I didn't entirely like what I heard.

But let's back up for a moment and do a little history. Poppers, or amyl nitrite, butyl nitrite, and isobutyl nitrite, as they are known by their various chemical formulations, were invented in the mid-1800s as a treatment for angina, or chest pain. These nitrites are in a yellowish, highly flammable, pungent-smelling liquid. You inhale their vapors as the method of delivery to your system.

I wasn't able to find anyone who knew the history of poppers in the gay community, but I did talk to my old friend George Hislop about it, who, at the age seventy-five at the time of the interview, was a bit of living history himself.

He says gays have been using poppers for a very long time. He says he was introduced to them for the first time in New York City in 1958 at a party. Someone handed him some and told him to try it. “I inhaled deeply, and then a minute later fell back against the wall,” he says. “I was like, ‘Holy shit, what the hell are these?’” When he regained his composure, his next question was: “And where can I get them?”

Forty-five years later, he's still a “user.” He says they help relax him just as some guy's about to penetrate him. Then he can't get enough. “They make me feel like I have twelve assholes,” he says. They also help him relax so he can deep throat big dicks.

He says in the old days you could buy them at the corner drug store. They were legal and available without a prescription. Back then they came in packs of twelve little glass capsules that you broke open and then quickly inhaled the vapors before the liquid evaporated. They made a popping sound when you crushed them, and that's how they got the name poppers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.