Soaring use of a ‘super-potent’ party drug often used to enhance sex is leading to a silent epidemic of addiction with fatal consequences, according to an expert.
GHB, derived from the solvent in paint stripper, is best known as a ‘date rape’ drug and was used by prolific sex offender Reynhard Sinaga, who was jailed last year for 159 sexual offences, including the rapes of 136 men.
Jan Gerber, chief executive at Paracelsus Recovery rehabilitation clinic, has stated that GHB is being increasingly used as a cheap alternative for cocaine and ecstasy.
Jan Gerber believes the drug – known simply as ‘G’ – is linked to an increase in suicides among gay men, and to heart failure deaths in healthy young people
His clinic has seen referrals increase more than fivefold from around 20 in 2015, to more than 100 by 2020.
‘We are seeing a silent epidemic of GHB addiction and the frightening thing is that a tiny overdose can produce coma and death,’ he said.
‘We have seen multiple clients become addicted to GHB, undergo numerous comas while using it and then struggle with major depressive disorder.’
GHB, a ‘chem-sex’ drug that reduces inhibitions and can heighten sexual pleasure, is most commonly used by gay men but is now being used as a more general party drug due to its cheap price and potency.
Reynhard Sinaga was a prolific sex offender who used GHB. He was sentenced last year for 159 sexual offenses, including the rapes and rapes of 136 males.
Mr Gerber said the dangers of the drug – known simply as ‘G’ – were often underrated and he believes it is linked to an increase in suicides among gay men, and to heart failure deaths in healthy young people.
His clinic is treating a client who lost two friends to heart failure where GHB was not mentioned on their death certificates ‘but he knows they took it, as he was there’.
GHB isn’t usually looked for in postmortem tests. It is difficult to detect because the body processes this substance quickly.
‘We think GHB is linked to thousands of hospital admissions and hundreds of deaths each year, although most of these go down as cardiac arrests or unexplained deaths,’ said Dr Gerber.
‘We also believe it is an unknown factor in many suicides.’
The Global Drug Survey, a poll of drug users anonymously, found that three-fifths of those who had taken GHB had died after the event. However, fatal overdoses are rare.