Three years ago, there were two Crystal Meth Anonymous meetings in New York. It is a huge problem in rural America, according to the National Institutes of Health.īut in New York, it is called tina, and it is almost exclusively a phenomenon among gay men. It is called crank on the West Coast, where it was popularized by the Hell's Angels in the 1960s.
This is the harsh reality of crystal, a form of speed (methamphetamine) that stimulates the brain's pleasure neurotransmitters and that experts say is as addictive as crack or heroin. "I was convinced that I was going to be arrested for spying," he says. Peter, one of the city's top real estate brokers, who managed to keep his job despite a serious crystal addiction, recalls being holed up in his Chelsea apartment with the blinds and shades drawn at mid-day so paranoid that he thought the CIA had bugged his apartment. But this is the Tuesday evening meeting of Crystal Meth Anonymous, and many have not been doing so well. The room rocks with laughter, hugs are easily exchanged, and plans are made for dinner or weekend outings. To an outsider it might seem as if things couldn't be better for the hundred or so men, mainly in their 30s and 40s, crowded into a fourth floor room at the Gay and Lesbian Center in the West Village. In a day when a woman’s reputation could still be irreparably damaged by divorce or an illegitimate child, petting let flappers thumb their nose at the convention while still protecting themselves against the repercussions of sex.Crystal Methamphetamine, known in New York City as tina Flappers’ reputations were made worse by petting, but the practice also reflected traditional values by avoiding premarital sex. Another found that 62 percent of women surveyed thought the practice was essential in order to be popular.īut the reality wasn’t as simple-or as scandalous-as it seemed. One study found that by 1924, 92 percent of college women had tried petting. Future: Heaven only knows what.”Īlarmingly for many, petting was popular among both wild flappers and average young women during the 1920s. When The Washington Post published a glossary of the flapper’s philosophy in 1922, it defined life as “One long petting party accompanied by jazz. Petting parties only added to this reputation. Traditional girls cared about getting married and raising kids flappers wanted to party instead of settling down. Critics grumbled about flappers’ refusal to engage in traditional courtship and their flippant attitudes toward long-held social conventions. Much of the hand-wringing about petting parties focused on the supposed immorality of the young woman who attended them. (Credit: General Photographic Agency/Getty Images) Flappers at the bar of Isa Lanchester’s nightclub in London, 1925.