Poppers, the Politics of Exemption and the Characteristics of Poppers Users in the annual English Festival Study, 2014–23

Fiona Measham; Mark McCormack; Henry Simmons; Liam Wignall

doi:10.1093/bjc/azae055

Poppers, the Politics of Exemption and the Characteristics of Poppers Users in the annual English Festival Study, 2014–23

Fiona Measham^*
, Mark McCormack
, Henry Simmons
, Liam Wignall

^*Corresponding author for this work

University of Liverpool
University of Sunderland
University of Brighton

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

39 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported alkyl nitrite (‘poppers’) use and sexual behaviours against a backdrop of UK policy change and ambiguity surrounding legal status. In 2024, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs recommended a unique, government-initiated, legal exemption from the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 for poppers, because of its use by gay and bisexual men to reduce the risk of injury during anal sexual intercourse. Data from the annual convenience sample English Festival Study 2014–23 (n = 11,566) were used for Bayesian regression analyses of self-reported poppers use in three-time frames: lifetime, past year and past month use. Gay men were significantly more likely to report poppers use and particularly those reporting past-year participation in anal sex. Providing a critical analysis of recent trends in UK drug policy, the authors highlight how differential discrimination occurs within drug control where targeted exemption meets the politics of protected characteristics in UK law. This paper argues that poppers, therefore, provide a unique example in UK drug policy of how an apparent liberalization of legislative control could bolster the overarching drug prohibition regime while maintaining the appearance of rationality and fairness.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	578–597
Number of pages	20
Journal	British Journal of Criminology
Volume	65
Issue number	3
Early online date	23 Sept 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azae055
Publication status	Published - May 2025

Bibliographical note

Copyright © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Funding

All authors are unpaid volunteers at The Loop Drug Checking Service (charity no. 1200533) www.wearetheloop.org. We thank all participating festivals and stakeholders, all Loop staff and particularly the Loop volunteers who conducted the annual English Festival Study from which this paper was drawn,

Funders	Funder number
Loop Drug Checking Service	1200533

Keywords

drugs
policy
poppers
alkyl nitrites
discrimination
sexuality

Access to Document

10.1093/bjc/azae055Licence: CC BY 4.0

F Measham et al_Politics of Exemption and the Characteristics of Popper Users_Annual Festival Study 2014-23
Copyright © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 882 KBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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abstract = "This paper explores the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported alkyl nitrite ({\textquoteleft}poppers{\textquoteright}) use and sexual behaviours against a backdrop of UK policy change and ambiguity surrounding legal status. In 2024, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs recommended a unique, government-initiated, legal exemption from the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 for poppers, because of its use by gay and bisexual men to reduce the risk of injury during anal sexual intercourse. Data from the annual convenience sample English Festival Study 2014–23 (n = 11,566) were used for Bayesian regression analyses of self-reported poppers use in three-time frames: lifetime, past year and past month use. Gay men were significantly more likely to report poppers use and particularly those reporting past-year participation in anal sex. Providing a critical analysis of recent trends in UK drug policy, the authors highlight how differential discrimination occurs within drug control where targeted exemption meets the politics of protected characteristics in UK law. This paper argues that poppers, therefore, provide a unique example in UK drug policy of how an apparent liberalization of legislative control could bolster the overarching drug prohibition regime while maintaining the appearance of rationality and fairness.",

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Poppers, the Politics of Exemption and the Characteristics of Poppers Users in the annual English Festival Study, 2014–23

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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Keywords

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