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Effects on the Body

GBL and GHB are powerful depressants on their own. They are often used in conjunction with alcohol, which increases their effects. Both GBL and GHB enter the brain rapidly, but the body absorbs GBL better than it does GHB. Therefore, any given amount of GBL is more powerful than the same amount of GHB.

The physical effects of GBL poisoning begin within fifteen to thirty minutes of taking the drug and last from three to six hours. The sometimes deadly effects of GBL and related drugs appear to be dose-related. Greater-sized doses produce more severe effects.

In the Emergency Room: Doctors and Nurses Report What They See

Low doses of GBL reportedly produce feelings of pleasure, sleepiness, and a loss of inhibitions. With larger doses, users may become dizzy, confused, depressed, and aggressive. In cases of overdose, "wide swings in patients' levels of consciousness" may occur, ranging "from wildly combative to comatose," remarked Andrew H. Arneson and Janine Goetze in the Journal of Emergency Nursing. "Health care workers have been injured by patients' extreme and violent behavior," they added. Very few users remember their experience because of the associated memory loss.

Three separate studies of GBL-related overdoses revealed strikingly similar results. The first study was published in a 1999 issue of MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The second report appeared in the Journal of Emergency Nursing in October of 2000. These two studies concerned GBL-related hospitalizations in the United States.

The third study, published in the April 9, 2004 issue of Swiss Medical Weekly, dealt with 141 cases of GBL/GHB overdose reported to the Swiss Toxicological Information Centre between 1995 and 2003. At a time when GBL and GHB use appeared to be declining in the United States, the authors of the Swiss report noted that the drugs were "emerging as substances of abuse in Europe." It is important to note that GHB use was prohibited in Switzerland in 2001, and that "from 2002 onwards, reports of GBL intoxication began to replace GHB cases." Intoxication is the loss of physical or mental control due to the use of a drug.

The findings of the three studies present a consistent picture of what happens to a person who has overdosed on GBL. Symptoms include a slowed heart rate; a slowed rate of breathing (sometimes down to just eight breaths per minute); pupils that do not react to light; jerking movements; seizures; and vomiting. (Vomiting occurs most often when alcohol is consumed along with GBL.) In some cases, breathing is quite shallow and intubationPutting a plastic tube into the lungs through the nose and throat, thus opening the airway of a person unable to breathe independently. is required to keep the patient's airway open. Intubation may also be necessary to keep the airway free of vomit.

The person comes in and out of a coma. Patients react with fear and combative behavior because they are unaware of what is happening to them. Often, they need to be restrained until the effects of the drug have worn off. Typically, within twelve to twenty-four hours of the incident, patients who overdose can be discharged from the hospital. They have no memory of the events that have occurred.

Addiction and Withdrawal

GBL and related drugs can cause physical and psychological dependence and addiction when used every day for more than a month. Psychological dependence is the belief that a person needs to take a certain substance in order to be able to function. Withdrawal from the drug can cause various problems. Withdrawal is the process of gradually cutting back on the amount of drug being taken until use can be stopped entirely.

Many illegal sales of date rape drugs such as GBL and GHB are made over the Internet. In 2002, DEA special agent John Bryfonski (left) talked with reporters about the arrest of three Canadians who used the Internet to sell large quantities of the drugs. The arrests were part of an international drug investigation called Operation Web Slinger. More than 104 people were arrested in 84 cities in the United States and Canada. AP/Wide World Photos.

According to doctors James Reeves and Roger Duda in an article for Addictive Disorders and Their Treatment, GBL and GHB withdrawal symptoms may not show up until a day or two after the drug's effects have worn off. Symptoms of abrupt withdrawal can be quite severe and include rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, sleeplessness, muscle cramping, tremors, extreme anxiety, paranoia (abnormal feelings of suspicion and fear), and even hallucinationsVisions or other perceptions of things that are not really present.. These symptoms can last from forty-eight hours to nearly two weeks.