NEW YORK, April 03 (Reuters) -- Overdose of the 'party' drug gamma hydroxy butyrate, or GHB, has claimed the life of one Texas girl and sent dozens more to hospital emergency rooms across the country, officials report.
"Many people mistakenly believe GHB is a 'safer' high than alcohol. Nothing could be further from the truth," says Dr. Rossanne Philen, chief of environmental hazards of the epidemiology section of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
The CDC report that someone may have slipped GHB into the drink of a 17-year-old girl at a Texas nightclub. She felt drowsy, returned home and went to bed. The girl never woke up, but suffered cardiac arrest. The local coroner has listed her death as a homicide.
"In general, GHB is a central nervous system depressant," Philen explained. "It can initially cause some intoxication. After that, people may get a sense of stupor, they may even go into coma. At that point they may have severe respiratory depression, which could halt breathing and, of course, lead to death."
The CDC report that in the period between August 1995 and September 1996, 69 patients were admitted to the hospitals in the U.S. suffering from acute GHB poisoning.
GHB has gained popularity in recent years, and is primarily used in the urban club and party scene. It is also popular with some bodybuilders, who believe it can help stimulate muscle growth.
GHB can produce a 'high' much like alcohol intoxication. "But with alcohol, it's very difficult to actually drink yourself to death," Philen pointed out. "You drink alcohol, you go into a stupor, and you may pass out, but you eventually wake up. With GHB, however, the amount needed to cause intoxication is not much smaller than the amount needed to cause coma. It can be very easy to overdose because of that."
GHB, known on the street by names like "Grevious Bodily Harm," "Liquid X," "Cherry Menth," and "Scoop," is usually mixed in home labs, and often cut with lye.
Lye, itself, is an extremely caustic substance which, when ingested, can cause serious damage on its own. A New York 20-year-old nearly lost his life due to GHB overdose alongside complications from ingested lye. "After he vomited he aspirated (breathed in) the vomit," Philen explained, "which is not uncommon to have happen in an unconscious person. The lye caused lung damage which was so severe they were considering giving him a lung transplant." The CDC report that the patient eventually recovered.
GHB is usually dispensed as a liquid in small vials, then added to drinks. Isolated cases of the use of GHB as a sedating, 'date-rape' drug have been noted, but Philen believes these remain the small minority of cases.
The manufacture and sale of GHB is prohibited in the U.S., but possession of the substance is not yet illegal in most parts of the country. "However, the Drug Enforcement Agency is trying to take steps to put GHB as a Schedule 1 (illegal) drug and, in fact, Georgia and Rhode Island have already done that for their individual states," Philen said.
She adds that the only hard data on GHB's popularity is coming from reports of emergency admissions due to overdose. "It may be increasing in use, or it may be just the increasing awareness of patients who may have previously thought to have been intoxicated with something else."
SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (1997;46(13):281-283)
