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Nothing to Rave About
GHB is nicknamed “Grievous Bodily Harm” for a reason.
It is a drug that is highly addictive–some say more than cocaine. It causes all sorts of nasty side effects, like delusions, unconsciousness, nausea, tremors, breathing problems, and extremely high body temperatures. GHB also contributes to violent behavior. Users have been known to smash their heads through plate glass, into walls, and other solid objects. “They think they’re on fire. They’re moving, thrashing, screaming,” said Karen Miotto, a University of California-Los Angeles addiction psychiatrist.
GHB is often found at raves, parties, and concerts. It’s sometimes called Liquid Ecstasy, Liquid X, or Georgia Home Boy. It is colorless and odorless, rarely showing up in drug screenings. Because of its ability to make users pass out, GHB is also a popular date rape drug. Rapists often use GHB because it is hard to detect in the user’s system, and the fact that it’s basically tasteless makes it easy to sneak into their unsuspecting victim’s drink. GHB can completely immobilize the person taking it, leaving them aware of what is going on, but unable to move their body in response. It can also knock someone completely unconscious.
GHB is becoming increasingly popular among teens and young adults, especially among athletes and ravers. Athletes often take GHB because it supposedly makes them lose weight and perform better. In the long run, however, it can ruin not only their athletic career, but their lives. “I think GHB is probably harder to get addicted to than some other drugs,” says Karen, “but once people get addicted, it is far harder to get off than any drug I’ve seen.”
Nicole, a 17-year-old former GHB user, knows this is true. “I tried to get my life back together. It was hard. I had gone from partying with groups of people every weekend, to sitting home every night by myself, crying. It wasn’t easy to give up my addiction, but it seemed nearly impossible to give up the lifestyle, the “friends.” Once I stopped using, they wanted nothing to do with me.” Some of these same friends, who had been at a party with Nicole, had left her passed out in the bathroom for hours. “They thought I just ‘G’ed out,” says Nicole (e.g. passed out from taking too much GHB). When the homeowner found her there, unconscious and barely breathing, he and another man dumped her off at the local hospital after giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation several times. She flatlined twice in the ER and was in a coma for three hours, barely breathing.
Nicole had started taking drugs– first Ecstasy and later cocaine, ketamine, and mushrooms–after going to raves with friends. At first she wasn’t interested in drugs and thought raves were “weird.” But more and more people she knew told her how great they were and encouraged her to go with them. “The more people I knew who went to raves, the more I believed it couldn’t be that bad,” says Nicole. The night Nicole was rushed to the hospital, she had taken approximately 10 times the amount of GHB normally used recreationally, Experts say, however, that no amount of GHB is safe. Freevibe.com says, “GHB is not always what it seems. Because club drugs, like GHB, are illegal and often produced in makeshift laboratories, it is impossible to know exactly what chemicals were used to produce them and where they came from. How strong or dangerous any illegal drug is varies from time to time.”
Will, a 20-year-old from Florida, didn’t realize how serious the effects of GHB were until it was too late. Will was an athlete, a wrestler and a runner, who was training to be a world-class athlete. He began taking GHB as part of his training regimen. Later he began showing strange symptoms: seeing things that weren’t there, hearing voices, having terrifying nightmares. His parents tried to get him the help he needed for three years. He was physically violent toward himself, and even though he tried to kick his addiction to GHB he was unable to. Will killed himself before he was able to break free of the death grip GHB had on him.
Nicole was lucky. She has been clean for more than a year, though she says she still feels the effects of the GHB. “I have recovered, but not fully. I still struggle with both short- and long-term memory loss.” After getting clean, Nicole entered and won the Miss Utah Teen contest. She now works to educate kids about drugs. “I speak at elementary [schools], middle schools, high schools, and on college campuses. I want kids and teens to know what can happen when you choose the wrong path. I have seen both sides, lived both lives. Believe me, I know now how lucky I am to be alive.”
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