Gay community activists and local health officials across the country have not waited for medical data to catch up with what they see up close. In California, Florida and New York, they have unveiled aggressive anti-methamphetamine campaigns in the last year to change opinions about the drug and direct users to treatment centers.

Methamphetamine, also called speed, crank, tina and tweak, is not unique to the gay male community. As addictive as crack, more powerful than ecstasy and cheaper than cocaine, methamphetamine has become the leading demon in drug rehab centers nationwide.

Methamphetamine’s inroads into the lives of middle-class, professional gay men threaten to destabilize the gay community at a time when it has largely bounced back from the initial ravages of the AIDS epidemic. Otherwise productive “weekend warriors” who believed that they could limit their use to special occasions or weekend parties now are finding themselves hooked. They are losing jobs, friends and relationships as they sink deeper into Methamphetamine Addiction.

Treatment Centers like Freedom Rings at Lakeview Health offer an answer to GLBTQ community in fighting methamphetamine addiction as well as other addictions.