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Because there were heavy correlations between the amount of sex you were having, the amount of poppers you had, and therefore your likelihood to become infected with HIV.
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“Understandably, lots of people were looking for a cause, and even when we knew it was a virus, lots of people were looking for co-factors – things that would, for example, make you more or less likely to become infected with the virus. “If I speak to people who are at least in their 50s who remember being a part of gay sexual life in the ‘80s, they definitely say that poppers were a part of the justified panic over what was going on,” Zmith tells PinkNews. An example of the way poppers have been marketed. Zmith is too young to remember the early days of the AIDS epidemic, but he says the hysteria surrounding poppers in those days did lasting damage to the image of amyl nitrite. In 1986, London police famously raided the Royal Vauxhall Tavern – a popular gay bar – and seized boxes of poppers. The panic continued to thrive even long after researchers identified HIV as the cause for AIDS. In a bid to appeal to the gay community, manufacturers started marketing their products with pictures of hulking, muscular men riding motorbikes and dressed in leather. Recognising that there was demand, entrepreneurs started modifying amyl nitrite slightly so they could sell it legally in small bottles designed for sniffing. It was after the FDA reintroduced its prescription requirement that capitalism swooped in to save the day. But by the end of the decade, following reports that young, healthy men were misusing the substance, the requirement for a prescription was reintroduced.īut it was far too late – the horse had well and truly bolted, and poppers had become firmly embedded within queer cultures. It was the popping sound those ampoules made when they were crushed that gave rise to the slang term “poppers”.īy the start of the 60s, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States decided that amyl nitrite was tame enough that a prescription was no longer required. Patients were instructed to crush them and inhale the fumes. This ultimately led to amyl nitrite being sold in glass ampoules on a prescription basis. Brunton started using amyl nitrite to treat patients with angina, believing that it could help to lower their blood pressure.