It was 8 p.m. and a mile from his home when Jacen Zhu realized that if he were going to survive, he would have to run. The men pursuing him, one on foot, two in a car, had begun narrowing the gap. He knew what was coming.
They had already kept him in the older, wealthy, white man’s house for 12 hours. The homeowner was the ringleader, directing everything that would unfold: enlisting two black men as bait to lure Zhu — an even younger black man — to his house, injecting him with crystal methamphetamine until he began to mentally detach; then holding a pillow over his face while penetrating him.
Finally, he managed to break loose. But as Zhu reached the front door, one of the men caught up, in time to make a suggestion: “Why don’t you take the exit through the garage?”
Today, Jacen Zhu sits in his car in San Diego reliving that night in 2013, relieved that he can. The story of how he survived and who kept him quiet unravels later. For now, he talks to BuzzFeed News about the wider issue: how crystal meth is spreading far beyond the party scene of the white gay community and into the lives of black and Latino queer men. And in particular, how white gay men are weaponizing meth against black men.
When drugs such as meth are used to heighten and prolong sex between two or more men, it is known as “PnP” — party and play. In Europe and elsewhere, this is also referred to as “chemsex.” Both can also involve drugs such as GHB, the illegal anesthetic that reduces inhibitions and intensifies sexual arousal. Even in tiny doses, it can cause unconsciousness and death. But, according to Zhu and others with firsthand experience, in these situations it is the acutely stimulating effects of meth that can unleash extreme racism and violence.
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