GBL - Usage Trends

Usage Trends

GBL and related drugs became popular on the club scene in the 1990s, especially among college-aged partygoers. There are two main reasons for the drugs' popularity among this age group: 1) they are relatively inexpensive when compared with alcohol and other drugs; and 2) they have no calories. However, the DEA warns that "drug quality may vary significantly" from one batch to another. For this reason, users who have taken either substance without any adverse reactionSide effects, or negative health consequences, reported after taking a certain substance. may experience life-threatening side effects the next time they use the drug.

Internet Sales

The U.S. government's "Pulse Check" report tracks information on how drugs get from the seller to the buyer. Research from a 2004 report revealed that buyers of GBL or GHB typically purchase the drug at a club, a rave, a college campus, or over the Internet. Several Internet sites have been known to sell kits containing all the ingredients necessary to cook up a batch of GHB from GBL. A DEA "Drug Intelligence Brief" stated that "GHB is easily produced by combining GBL with either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide in a cooking pot or bucket." As of 2005, GBL was still available for purchase via the Internet.

Peak Use in the 1990s Includes Reports of Date Rape

At the height of its popularity in the late 1990s, GBL and GHB use accounted for a large share of club drug overdoses. Most of these occurred in users age eighteen to twenty-five. Throughout the decade, the DEA documented nearly 16,000 overdoses and more than 70 deaths related to the drugs.

Reports of GBL- and GHB-related "date rapes" began to emerge in the 1990s as well. Because the substances are hard to detect when dissolved in a drink, various individuals have become unknowing victims of GBL and GHB poisoning. Both substances are extremely effective at bringing on sleep. Rape victims who have consumed a GBL- or GHB-laced drink are unable to offer any resistance to the rapist. Furthermore, after waking up, victims often have no clear memories of the attack.

Alcohol and GBL

In 2004, researchers in Ireland published an article in the Journal of Forensic Sciences on how GBL reacts with alcohol. They found that, under the right conditions, GBL begins changing to GHB in the presence of alcohol alone—without even being swallowed. Prior to this discovery, it was believed that the conversion process occurred within the body after the GBL had been consumed. GBL mixed with a nonalcoholic beverage will convert to GHB after it is swallowed. Research continues on the effects of GBL and GHB on the human body.

In 1996, the Drug-Induced Rape Prevention and Punishment Act made it a felony to give an unsuspecting person a date rape drug with the intent of committing violence, including rape. Penalties of large fines and up to twenty years in prison were set for importing or distributing these drugs. Regardless of the law, GBL and GHB continued to be used

To help people know if their drinks are free of date rape drugs, a company in California created this detection coaster. To test a beverage, one places drops of the drink on the test circles. If the circles turn dark blue in 30 seconds, the dri
To help people know if their drinks are free of date rape drugs, a company in California created this detection coaster. To test a beverage, one places drops of the drink on the test circles. If the circles turn dark blue in 30 seconds, the drink contains a date-rape drug. Whether the tests are truly effective is highly debated. AP/Wide World Photos.

as date rape drugs. In the early twenty-first century, various companies created drink coasters and other testing kits so that people can check their drinks for potentially harmful substances. However, whether such kits are truly effective is highly debated.

Usage Tapering Off in the United States

The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. DAWN monitors drug-related visits to hospital emergency departments (EDs). In the last two quarters of 2003, the DAWN "Interim National Estimates of Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits" report estimated that the use of GBL/GHB resulted in 990 ED visits out of approximately 630,000 total drug-related ED visits in 260 hospitals across the United States. A little more than half of the patients were male. Although the DAWN figures for 2003 represent only half the year, the figures remain encouraging to law enforcement and medical staff. GHB-related emergency room visits during the entire year of 2000 reached nearly 5,000, according to an earlier DAWN report.

The Monitoring the Future (MTF) study is a well-known survey of drug use and attitudes toward drugs among middle school and high school students. Although MTF does not ask about GBL use specifically on its survey, it has included questions about GHB since 2000. However, no MTF information on GHB use is available for the 1990s—the decade in which it was most highly abused.

Close Call for Gugliotta

Veteran NBA player Tom "Googs" Gugliotta began playing professional basketball in 1992, but his career—and his life—nearly ended in 1999, at age twenty-nine. At the time, Gugliotta was a forward for the Phoenix Suns. After a game in Portland, Oregon, on December 17, 1999, he suffered a near-fatal seizure on the team bus and was hospitalized in serious condition. Gugliotta had been taking "a supplement recommended by a friend to aid muscle recovery," explained Shira Springer in the Boston Globe. The supplement contained GBL. Gugliotta ingested a dose on an empty stomach prior to his seizure. His breathing stopped, and he almost died before reaching the hospital.

Gugliotta's brush with death coincided with a government crackdown on GBL. The FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations had already recorded 116 arrests related to GBL sales.

Three months after the GBL incident, Gugliotta sustained a serious knee injury that cut his playing time for four seasons. He bounced from Phoenix to the Utah Jazz to the Boston Celtics before being traded to the Atlanta Hawks in 2005. Despite his career setbacks, Googs said he was happy to be alive—and still playing basketball. It is important to check any dietary supplements to make sure what ingredients are in the product.

The MTF results for 2004 indicate that 0.7 percent of eighth graders, 0.8 percent of tenth graders, and 2.0 percent of twelfth graders reported using GHB at least once in the twelve months leading up

Basketball star Tom Gugliotta (right) nearly died in 1999 after taking a dietary supplement that contained GBL. AP/Wide World Photos.
Basketball star Tom Gugliotta (right) nearly died in 1999 after taking a dietary supplement that contained GBL. AP/Wide World Photos.

to the survey. Both eighth- and tenth-grade use was down slightly from 2003. A small increase in use among twelfth graders was noted. Because of the decrease in use in the other two grades, MTF investigators "interpret this pattern as showing no systematic change."