In recent weeks, she seems to be everywhere. In student parties in Grenoble and Montpellier, as in bars and nightclubs in Oise, Strasbourg or even Nancy. GHB, or “rapist’s drug”, circulates and continues to claim victims, most often young women, drugged without their knowledge.
This molecule, used for medical purposes, has gradually been diverted for recreational purposes. Before becoming a weapon in the hands of sexual predators. But what are the effects and risks associated with GHB? 20 minutes explains to you.
What is GHB and what is its medical use?
This acronym designates “Gamma-Hydroxy-Butyrate”, a synthetic molecule with sedative properties. Conditioned as a soluble white powder or liquid, it is most often administered orally, but its use is very restricted and strictly regulated in medicine. GHB is thus indicated in the treatment of sleep disorders such as “narcolepsy in adult patients, adolescents and children” in rare cases, specifies Vidal, the reference bible for health products.
GHB, “synthesized in the 1960s, easily and quickly enters the brain. It induces sleep close to physiological sleep, with a good quality awakening, and has indications in anesthesiology and in the treatment of narcoleptic disorders and alcohol addiction ”, explains Inserm.
What are the effects of this molecule and why has this drug become “the rapist’s drug”?
“Its sedative, anxiolytic and euphoric properties have diverted this compound from its therapeutic indications, for recreational use and illicit consumption,” explains Inserm. In low to moderate doses, GHB provides tranquility, mild euphoria and disinhibition, as well as a “feeling of drunkenness comparable to that of alcohol.” In high doses, its effects are those of a powerful sleeping pill, ”describes Drogues Info Service. Hence its nickname “liquid ecstasy”.
Its shape – odorless and colorless – and its sedative and amnesic effects “make it conducive to criminal use (sexual abuse or assault), alert the national service for information, listening and help on drugs and addictions.” It can be poured, without a person’s knowledge, into a drink, without changing its taste or appearance ”.
In addition, “two closely related substances, GBL (gammabutyrolactone acid) – an industrial solvent – and BD (butanediol), are transformed into GHB once in the body. They have the same effects and present the same risks, ”continues Drogues Info Service. Cases of GBL intoxication have thus been regularly reported in recent years.
How do you know if you have been addicted to GHB without your knowledge? What are the side effects of this molecule?
If it is possible to identify the presence of GHB in the body, its detection is however delicate and limited in time. Thus, “GHB can be detected only by specialized analysis laboratories, for less than 12 hours in the urine, and barely a few hours in the blood,” warns Drugs Info Service. The difficulties in detecting GHB are due both to the rapidity of its disappearance from the body and to the fact that it is naturally present in the human body ”.
If GHB is therefore odorless and colorless, the Belgian association for prevention and listening Infor Drugs however specifies that it may have a “salty taste”. What confirms a reader of 20 minutes, who thinks he was drugged with: “I was served a vodka with an energy drink.” My drink smelled of dishwashing liquid and tasted half sweet, half salty, that should have alerted me, ”regrets the young woman, who pleads for vast prevention campaigns against the use of this drug.
During poisoning, GHB acts very quickly. Its effects are felt 15 to 30 minutes after absorption and last about an hour, or even several, continues Drogues Info Service. “At one point in the evening I felt a real paralysis. I was conscious, but I no longer had any strength in me to push anyone around me. Then my condition got worse. I ended up not seeing anything, not being able to speak, I couldn’t even send a message. And I ended up falling asleep. The black hole ”, confided a few weeks ago to 20 minutes a student from Montpellier who thinks she has been drugged without her knowledge. Headaches, dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea and vomiting, drowsiness, confusion and amnesia are among the main side effects of GHB.
How to protect yourself from poisoning?
A few years ago, American students developed an anti-GHB polish, which, if a drink contains this substance, changes color when you dip your finger in your glass. a
similar device, which has the shape of a shopping cart token, also allows it, by pouring a drop of its drink, to detect the presence of GHB with an “efficiency of 99.3%”, assure its creators. In nightclubs or in the evening, the first precaution is not to leave your drink unattended and not to accept a drink offered by an unknown person. Not to mention the “convertible tops” for glass, transparent and reusable protections to prevent drugs from being slipped into them.
In reaction to the testimonies of women addicted to GHB which have accumulated in recent weeks, the collective
Heroes 95 launched a movement to boycott bars and nightclubs as of November 12, and calls on the managers of festive places – bars, nightclubs and concert halls – to organize “staff training in the prevention of gender-based and sexual violence “.