Monday 11 May 2009

GBL - A dangerous new drug used by clubbers


Gamma-butyrolactone, or GBL, is the latest recreational drug to hit pubs and clubs. Doctors say it is killing young people but because traces remain in the body for only up to 12 hours after consumption, the true number of fatalities is unknown.


A cording to the Daily Mail, Dr Sean Cummings, who runs a private clinic in Harley Street, London, specialising in patients with drugs problems, believes GBL is claiming the lives of about six people a year. Scores more end up in casualty every weekend. The latest woman to become a tragic statistic is Hester Stewart, 21, an outstanding medical student at Sussex University - until she was found dead at a house in Brighton on Sunday morning after a party. Next to her body, police found a bottle of GBL.


The chemical is perfectly harmless if used for the purpose for which it was originally intended - as a paint stripper and rust remover for garages or industrial cleaning firms. But for clubbers, a pipette is used to measure 'shots' of GBL which is mixed with water or orange juice, then drunk - just as you might drink vodka. GBL is virtually tasteless and odourless when diluted, but produces a high not dissimilar to ecstasy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sad sad sad sad. I can not comprehend why such is so.What has happened to the world I lived in when I was younger and able to breathe freely? I dread to think what sort of world it will be when my own Daughter has children.Maybe it will go in full circle hey? Back to the good old days!(don't I sound old? Ha!)

Anonymous said...

Total rubbish! I notice that the UK poster girl for GHB/GBL bans, Hester Stewart, has never listed a cause of death. This is much like the propaganda campaign launched in the USA where Hillory J. Farias was used to frighten people into believing that GHB was a dangerous 'date rape' drug. It was later proven that not only had Farias NOT taken GHB, but she actually died form a congenital heart defect.

10's of thousands of people in the US take GHB every day, in the form of Xyrem for the treatment of a variety of sleep disorders and none have experienced any of the so-called dangerous side effects that the political and media machines would have you believe.

I am living proof! I am one of those people.