Despair was a daily companion, and I witnessed the death of friends in manners too gruesome to be described. As a gay man I worked tirelessly through the 1980’s directing AIDS agencies and advocating HIV education. But becoming a habitual liar was only the beginning. My drug addiction perverted every value I hold dear, and truthfulness was the first to be abandoned. So when, at long last, my recovery has convinced me that honesty is the only thing that can save my life, I shouldn’t be surprised that my friends are reluctant to believe me. We’ve protected our addiction through a myriad of lies and manipulations for so long that being truly honest again is like learning a foreign language from scratch. That’s the problem with drug addicts like me. How addiction to crystal methamphetamine is threatening the gay community’s long struggle to turn a corner on the AIDS epidemic.
