GHB

Drink spiking is a growing concern everywhere where people drink. A recent survey in the UK found that one in four women drinkers believed that they had had a drink spiked at least once.
The Police are generally unable to solve drug rape and other drink spiking crimes. Victims have little or no memory of what happened. Even if a victim figures out what happened and goes to the Police or a hospital for a blood or urine test, the test is likely to be negative as many of these drugs leave one’s system quickly.
There are three groups of drugs generally used in drink spiking: GHB, Ketamine and the benzodiazepines—which include Rohypnol.
Criminals who engage in drink spiking know that there is little chance they will get caught—until now! If you are vigilant and have a Drink Detective with you whenever you are out drinking, you will be sending a signal to the drink spiker that he might get caught.
There are many ways the Drink Detective can be used to fight drink spiking crimes.

The Drink Detective tests for virtually all the drugs used in drug rape and other drink spiking crimes. These include GHB, ketamine and the more than 60 drugs in the benzodiazepine group that includes Rohypnol, Xanax and Valium.

The Drink Detective, in a matchbook format, has three spots, one for each of the tests. The ketamine and GHB tests show a chemical, colour reaction. The benzodiazepine test is an immunoassay—like a pregnancy test.

As GHB is such a misused drug, let us tell you more about it.

Gamma Hydroxybutyrate (GHB)

GHB is a central nervous system depressant abused for its ability to produce euphoric and hallucinatory states and, as some believe, acts like an anabolic steroid to stimulate muscle growth. GHB was originally available over-the-counter drug in the US but was made illegal there in 1990 due to overdoses and other health problems. It was made a Class C illegal drug in the UK in July 2002.

GHB takes effect within 10-20 minutes and lasts 1-3 hours.

Other street names for GHB are Grievous Bodily Harm, Georgia Home Boy, Scoop, Great Hormones at Bedtime, Soap, Easy Water, G-Riffick, Cherry Meth, Organic Quaalude, Jib, Liquid Ecstacy, Liquid X, the Easy Lay, Goop and Gamma-oh.

GHB was popular in body-building gyms for many years because its alleged steroid-like effects. It is still especially popular in clubs because it is a muscle relaxant that gives one the sense of well-being and mild euphoria similar to the effect of ecstasy.

GHB is not as widely known as ecstasy, but is more dangerous. The Drug Abuse Warning Network in the US reported—in 2000—more emergency room visits related to GHB than to ecstasy (4969 versus 4511, respectively).

GHB is easy to manufacture and a number of recipes for it can be found on the internet. As different amateur chemists will produce varying concentrations of the drug, and as people vary significantly in both body mass and drug tolerance, it is virtually impossible to determine a safe dosage of GHB. This makes the drug especially dangerous.

A review of the literature suggests the following dosages for a 250ml drink:
(1 gram = 1/5 of a teaspoon = 4000 ppm (parts per million))

Light: 0.75-1.75g
Standard: 1.75-2.75g
Strong: 2.75-4g
Heavy: 5g or more
Overdose: 6.25g or more
Coma: 8.75g or more
Death: 10g or more

Many people have bad reactions to GHB. These effects can include disinhibition, sedation, hallucinations, desire to sleep, rambling speech, giddiness, silliness, difficulty thinking, slurred speech, loss of bladder control and passing out. The effects of an overdose can include deep sedation from which you cannot be awakened for about three hours, seizures, sudden and dangerous drop in blood pressure, heart rate or breathing, coma and death. The effects of GHB are exacerbated when taken with alcohol or other drugs. This makes it especially dangerous when used to spike an alcoholic drink.

No one expects a woman (or a man—men account for 15% of drug rapes in the UK) to test every drink. In fact, we recommend using the Drink Detective only in two circumstances: if you have a reason to suspect that your drink has been spiked in a drink spiking incident or if you have a stronger than expected reaction to a drink. The drugs take about 20 minutes to incapacitate you and if you find that a drink has been spiked, you would have time to get help—either from a friend or from bar staff who could call the police and ensure that you were not left alone until you got to safety. There are many more crimes carried out by drink spikers. About a month ago a woman was arrested in London for drugging men’s drinks and then taking their wallets and watches. We have had reports from all over the world of men getting drugged and returning home to later find that hundreds of dollars was taken—by them—from cash machines. The victims have no recollection of the withdrawals (which are often captured on tape) or to whom they gave the money.

You can find on this site a Guardian article that describes the scope of the drink spiking problem in the UK. It reports that one in four female drinkers have been spiked at least once. Whether or not you accept their data, it is clear that drink spiking is a serious and growing problem. The problem is exacerbated in the US by police frustration. It is very difficult not only to convict someone for a drink-spiking crime; it is tough even to show that a crime took place. Moreover, it is enormously expensive to do a complete urine test for an alleged victim of drug rape. And the test would mostly come out negative even if the victim had been drugged because most drugs leave the system very quickly. So it is not surprising that some police forces would choose to concentrate on other crimes—all of which have higher conviction rates. It seems that the only way to reduce drink spiking is through deterrence achieved by scaring the would-be criminal.

The Drink Detective makers are in the midst of a campaign not only to sell product but, more important, to promote public awareness of the problems of drink spiking. To that end they have created three really striking posters that could be put up anywhere drinks are served. They say

• You can’t identify a Drug Rapist… but you can avoid him
• Focus on your drink…avoid being a target of Drug Rape
• I only left me drink for a moment… the rest of the night was a blur.

We hope that as more and more bars carry these or other, similar, posters and more and more drinkers carry the Drink Detective, the risk will slowly but inexorably move from the drinker to the spiker.

We can’t stress enough that drink spiking is a crime that the police cannot solve. With the best will in the world, the police simply cannot catch more than a handful of people who spike drinks. The very few who do get caught are apprehended because they do something stupid—like making videos of their rapes. Moreover, simple awareness will help but it will not be completely effective. It is simply too easy to put something into your drink—no matter how vigilant you are. Deterrence, not arrests and convictions, is the key to solving drink-spiking crimes.

We have are developing a deterrence program for clubs and bars. We will make available a package that includes the following:
• A number of Drink Detectives
• The three posters just mentioned
• A sticker that says “The Drink Detective Operates Here”
• A new poster that says
THIS IS A ZERO TOLERANCE ZONE FOR DRINK SPIKING
DRINKS WILL BE RANDOMLY TESTED
IF YOU WERE PLANNING TO SPIKE A DRINK HERE, THINK AGAIN: YOU WILL GET CAUGHT

We propose that the largest, most imposing bar staff member in a bar test just a few drinks on random nights—with considerable publicity. Once the word gets around that this is being done, and together with the message in the last poster, very few of the cowards who currently spike drinks (risk-free) would try it again. The risk would be greater for them than for the innocent drinker.

We are also working with some police forces to carry out similar random checks.

Carry the Drink Detective and help transfer the risk from the drinker to the drink spiker. You can help deter drink spiking crimes!