43 minutes | Monday, 13 February 2023
WARNING: THIS EPISODE CONTAINS DRUGS REFERENCES SOME PEOPLE IN RECOVERY MAY FIND TRIGGERING. Greg Owen has been called "one of the U.K.’s most vocal proponents of PrEP", describing himself as the "poster boy for PrEP in the UK". He is the PREP lead for Terrence Higgins Trust and talks frankly about the issues surrounding PREP, being HIV positive and issues surrounding chemsex.
But did you know that Greg found out about PREP initially during his party days from a meth dealer at a sex party?
Leading HIV researchers credit Greg and his campaign being a major force in the massive reduction in new HIV infections in the UK between 2015 and 2017. This despite the fact he was processing the news of his own HIV diagnosis, dealing with drugs issues and was homeless at the time.
Here Graeme Smith and Greg Owen talk about the chemsex scene and how they both survived it and we hear Greg's thoughts on the question of whether PREP encourages people to take more sexual risks. Turns out it's not as simple as that.