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GHB date rape drug is back and pill testing may not help, says ED doctor

GHB the Date Rape Drug

Discovered by a Russian chemist in the nineteenth century, used as a general anaesthetic in 1970s Dunedin, picked up by Californian bodybuilders in the 1990s - the drug known as GHB has travelled a long road to its current resurgence in the Australian party scene.
On the weekend in Melbourne, more than 20 people were hospitalised after reportedly overdosing at the Electric Parade festival. GHB was blamed - one of the biggest overdoses of the drug since 10 people collapsed outside at a Gold Coast nightclub in 1996.
"It's back again," exclaimed Dr David Caldicott, a Canberra-based emergency department doctor who was in Adelaide when GHB hit in the '90s.
"I thought we managed to explain to people it was a stupid drug to take. Around Australia there will be emergency doctors everywhere holding their heads in their hands going, 'Oh God!'.

Dr Caldicott was an expert witness in one of the most high profile GHB cases - the death of Dianne Brimble on a P&O cruise in 2002. The 42-year-old mother of three died from a combination of alcohol and GHB, and her body was found on the floor of a cabin belonging to four men.
Over the next 10 years, use of GHB among regular drug users dropped steadily, according to research by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC).

In 2016, it suddenly ticked up again.
This aligns with arrest statistics - Victoria police made no arrests for GHB from 2006-2012.
In 2016 alone, it made 545.

Read the full article HERE

If you are concerned that your drink has been spiked with a drug including GHB, MediNat Australia are one of the few in Australia that supply a drink test to show if your drink has been spiked.
Buy the Drink Spike Detector here online.

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