All about Poppers
1983
This article from the Voice, the Nightingale Clubs members magazine discusses poppers in July 1983. In the early years of the HIV epedemic there had been a suspected link between Poppers and AIDS, this link was later proved false.
Poppers
Whenever people think of poppers two things spring to mind, firstly the smell and secondly the health risks involved in using them. The awful smell that used to be associated with poppers stems from the time when only Amyl Nitrite was available in this country, however over the last four years people have begun to favour the American type of poppers with trade names like "locker room" "rush" "hardware" and "quick-silver". These are all products that use Isobutyl Nitrite which has a completely different smell to Amyl Nitrite and is not offensive.
As for the risks involved in their use, when sales started to boom in America the companies involved in their manufacture sponsored in-depth research into the effects of Isobutyl Nitrite. They could find no side effect from continued use of the drug but even now they are still maintaining regular tests. Many people may think that the companies are biased in their reports but it should be pointed out that the U.S. Federal Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) has also been monitoring the use of Isobutyl Nitrite over the last six years and have not found one injury or death that is attributable to it.
When poppers are inhaled they cause the muscles of the body to relax, including the muscles that surround the blood vessels. This causes your blood pressure to drop so your heart beats more quickly to pump extra blood to your muscles. The effect lasts for between 60 - 90 seconds and then your heart beat returns to normal. The fact that your heart is beating faster is what causes the high sensation that you experience when you have inhaled them. With a relaxing of the muscles comes a relaxing of inhibitions which is why they are so popular on the dance floor and in the bedroom. It should also be pointed out that unlike cigarettes and alcohol, poppers are non-addictive. Finally it has now been proved that thereis no link between poppers and AIDS as was at first thought. The only reason they were ever studied in connection with AIDS was that they were a drug used mainly by gay people. Some people will always dissaprove of poppers, just as some people dissaprove of cigarettes and alcohol. They are at present banned from the club, however I hope I have managed to convince a few people at least that they are not the evil things some folk would have us believe.
Contributed by: Voice