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Letter to the Editor: Why are we Talking About Drugs?

Letter to the Editor: Why are we Talking About Drugs?

Queer people and the use of drugs have a long, tangled history that ranges from recreation to addiction to health. To ignore this issue would be a disservice to our readers. So, the editorial staff over here at OUT FRONT decided to focus on LGBTQ people use them.

We were hesitant at first, not knowing what would come of such an issue. What we found out was, LGBTQ people rely on both recreational and prescribed drugs to navigate life. We also looked at how our community abuses some of these drugs and is likely to live with addiction.

The most recent data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse found members of the queer community were more than twice as likely to use illegal drugs. That was in 2015.

In 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau broke it down even further. One analysis showed LGB teens were 90 percent more likely to use drugs than heterosexual adolescents. Those numbers may be even higher today.

In these pages, you’ll see a slew of different stories. We looked at a controversial way Colorado’s politicians are trying to fight the war on drugs and minimize overdoses within Denver. It’s a battle that meets a strong resistance from Republicans.

We chatted with some of Denver’s trippiest artists about music, local support, and being straight-up weird.

We’ve looked at how queer people are using drugs to heal themselves. No, we are not talking about your typical prescriptions, but alternative ways to work through trauma, sexual and otherwise.

We looked at hormone replacement therapies, drugs in the 90s, ‘party and play’ culture, and the inequality that still lingers in the cannabis industry for people of color.

We hope you flip through these pages and walk away with a few new perspectives on drug use within the our community. At the very least, we hope you get inspired to try some cannabis-infused lube. Trust me, that sh*t is good!

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