Neither Legal Nor Illegal: Poppers as ‘Acceptable’ Chemsex Drugs Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in the Philippines

• Main Authors: Yu, Vincen Gregory, Lasco, Gideon
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2023
• Subjects: Poppers; Chemsex; Men who have sex with men; Drug policy; Anthropology; Biological and Physical Anthropology; Medicine and Health Sciences; Public Health; Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/dev-stud-faculty-pubs/125; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2023.104004
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Our article provides the first qualitative inquiry into the use of alkyl nitrites or poppers in the Philippines. Drawing from thematic analysis of 13 semi-structured interviews; we illuminate the role of poppers in the lives of men who have sex with men (MSM) in the country; arguing that the popularity of these substances is embedded within multiple; occasionally conflicting sexual and chemical ideologies. More than their multifunctionality as drugs that fulfill many roles and are used in various sexual settings; it is their ideological acceptability that largely explains their popularity. In the contexts of the ongoing Philippine drug war and of Philippine society's long history of stigmatizing people who use drugs; poppers are widely regarded as biomedically; sociopolitically; and legally ‘harmless’ and ‘acceptable’; especially relative to other substances used for chemsex. In constructing poppers as chemsex drugs; we depart from definitions of chemsex established mainly by the Global North and provide a glimpse into how MSM who use poppers situate themselves in a particularly hostile sociopolitical milieu. We consider the implications of our findings against the country's drug paradigm; reflecting on the nature of poppers as substances located in the gray area of legality; and what they mean for sexuality; drug use; and the localized; cultural taboos of our time.