GHB makes a return
Nine people were admitted to St Vincent’s Hospital after overdosing on the drug GHB during Mardi Gras festivities.
While there are normally up to a dozen overdoses on various drugs during a Mardi Gras weekend, hospital staff said the most prevalent this year was GHB.
It’s not in epidemic proportions, but it was a little bit of a stick-out of nine presentations, a hospital spokesman said.
GHB overdoses had been declining, according to Professor Gordian Fulde of St Vincent’s. The drug is notable for being easy to overdose on, due to the small quantities of liquid required.
It [GHB] has a reputation in your community for being safe, but it’s not -” it can kill you, Fulde said.
Generally, our problem with G, being St Vincent’s, has become less. When not during the Mardi Gras period it’s not the problem it used to be, but it’s still there, and we were caught unawares by this heavy G-taking.
The thing that was most disappointing was that there were mixed overdoses. That meant when [the patients] got here they were sicker. One that arrived here was critically sick.
The best thing is not to take drugs, but if you feel you have to do that lifestyle, just stick to one.
While alcohol was legal, Fulde said, taking it early before other drugs was a recipe for death.
The other myth is that somehow we can do a test to find out what they’ve taken, he said.
Police drug detection dogs found drugs on 40 people during the Mardi Gras party.
The searches resulted in more than 60 charges, including one of supply.
Seized drugs included ecstasy, GHB, ketamine, cannabis and amphetamines.
Underage binge drinking also spiked, according to St Vincent’s, but was fairly typical of a Mardi Gras night and not unexpected.
Everybody is free to do whatever they want. But if drugs will take you to an stage where you will start to lie to people,,lie the people you care,,your family,,spend hips of money and become an addicted and destroy your life. So what’s the point? Have 5 or 6 hours of pleasure in the short time but hurting yourself for the rest of your life.
I think the gay community ( WE) make our world more difficult and sadder.
Take drugs and support your local bikie gang.
. . . . . .oh no ! ! !
Perhaps a funeral parlour set up next to drug venues would be a good idea?
Yea and a priest, rabbi, mufti etc ready to say the Last Rights.
Yea a growth industry in the recession ! Budget Funerals For Stupid.
Actually, one ecstasy pill can kill you – if it laced with PMA or other deadly chemicals. GHB can kill you quickly as well. There is less margin for error compared with other drugs. It also should not be taken with depressants such as alcohol. Yet people do and some of those are lucky to be alive. Others not so lucky.
I guess the thing about drugs is not so much instant death but slow and certain destruction of quality of life. And it is really hard to illustrate that process. Hospitals and homeless hostels are full of brain damaged drug addicts. That’s easy to see. What’s harder to show is how they got there.
David,
Yea it does taste like nail polish sorta, but thats not supposed to be the fun part of it obviously. You dont drink straight vodka because you enjoy the taste do you? Its the after effect that counts. The problem is, one veil of G is around $10-$20 (in Toronto clubs), which is about the size of a shot glass, and that will give you a drunk sensation for about 6 hours, with pretty much no “after effects” (not talking about organ damage etc). Vodka on the other hand, is about $7/shot, and you need 6-8 shots depending on your size to get the same feeling. Mind you the after effects in the morning: vomiting, dizziness, hungover, drowsiness and aching body…a ruined day to say the least.
About it not being healthy, i think giving up on soda’s, fast food and processed food in exchange for one weekly veil of G is a good deal. I may be wrong though, just my opinion. (just to help me sleep at night)
….and no, im not saying drugs are good, because if it was up to me i would get rid of all of them, but they’ve been around for way too long, and they are going to be here for a very long time too, so i think the issue is more on educating the public of its dangers, effects and how to be a safe user. Take a European stance towards it. Also, bringing someone thats never even seen drugs and have them lecture the class telling kids in High School that one pill of ecstasy can kill you when a third of the class has done multiple times…you sort of lose credibility when the kid in the back row realizes that he ran out of fingers and toes while he was counting the amount of pills he did last month.
…and thats my rant.
Exactly David. Its all not good for your health.
GHB sounds like a lot of fun. If you define ‘fun’ as like drinking nail polish remover or turpentine. It seems that many in the gay community are trying out new and exciting ways of poisoning themselves. Gay bashers need not waste their energy. We can hurt ourselves more effectively than they ever can.