What is GHB? Dangerous party drug linked to multiple overdose deaths

[mr peabody]

What is GHB? Dangerous party drug linked to multiple overdose deaths

by Matt Dunn | nine.com.au | Dec 9 2019

A dangerous party drug believed to have claimed the life of four young Australians in the past fortnight has prompted warnings from health professionals.

Three people died of drug overdoses in Perth over the weekend, which followed another man dying from an overdose at the Strawberry Fields festival in New South Wales just one week earlier.

GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) – also known as G, fantasy, grievous bodily harm, Gina or "liquid ecstasy" – is suspected to have played a role in each of the deaths, although final toxicology results are still pending.

Australian Medical Association President Andrew Miller calls GHB "very tricky" as there is "an extremely high risk of overdosing because there's almost no difference between the amount that causes the high and the amount that causes an overdose."

"It's a nasty drug and it goes up in popularity for a little while every now and then," he told Today.

"Unfortunately, it's usually associated with a spate of deaths. And then it goes out of fashion again for a while for that reason."

The drug was developed as an anaesthetic in the 1960s and is still used to treat narcolepsy and alcoholism is controlled medical environments.

However, its cheap price and discreet presentation has seen it become popular with partygoers chasing a high.

While known as "liquid ecstasy," GHB is very different to the party drug MDMA as it acts a nervous system depressant, with sedative and anaesthetic effects.

GHB is usually sold in small bottles or vials containing a colourless/odourless liquid and is commonly swallowed, although it can be injected or inserted anally.

Effects of GHB are felt within 15 minutes and last around three hours, with the drug known to produce feelings of euphoria, relaxation and sociability, while also lowering inhibitions and increasing sex drive.

Users can suffer both psychological and physical dependence of the drug, with withdrawal symptoms usually starting about 12 hours after the last dose.

GHB can cause users to experience:

• Dizziness
• Vomiting
• Tremors
• Loss of co-ordination
• Confusion, irritation and agitation
• Hallucinations
• Seizures
• Coma
• Respiratory arrest
• Death

What is GHB?: Dangerous party drug linked to multiple overdose deaths

GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) – also known as G, fantasy, grievous bodily harm, Gina or liquid ecstasy – is s...

www.9news.com.au

 

[emkee_reinvented]

Thank's for the warning mr Peabody.

The side effect's in global match up. It does repress breeding more then expected. The coma induced are mostly a light version of it I believe.

Not knowing the steep dose curve. And the interaction with Alcohol, and alike downer's including Opiod's. Makes it dangerous material but dying on it alone is quite hard. Or maybe I was real lucky.

Could it be other factor's were involved that went unnoticed? Or did they really od on just G.

 

[Meth novice 79]

Thank's for the warning mr Peabody.

The side effect's in global match up. It does repress breeding more then expected. The coma induced are mostly a light version of it I believe.

Not knowing the steep dose curve. And the interaction with Alcohol, and alike downer's including Opiod's. Makes it dangerous material but dying on it alone is quite hard. Or maybe I was real lucky.

Could it be other factor's were involved that went unnoticed? Or did they really od on just G.

I was reading about this today.
We had to call an ambulance this morning because the guy I’m seeing kept redosing (up too) his GHB because he thought it ‘wasn’t working’ put himself in a coma and ended up needing machines to breath for him for 5 hours.

Mostly his doctors weren’t concerned so long as they were able to assist respiration.

A study I read while waiting for him to wake today said something like only 13 of 137 deaths were attributed to GHB alone, most were a combination of drugs with MDMA being the most common partner drug.