A drug widely used to spike the drinks of rape victims and sold over the Internet is to be outlawed from midnight on Monday, the British government has announced.
Dealers selling gammahydroxybutrate — generally known as GHB —
will face up to five years in jail, and possession will carry a maximum two-year sentence after the government classified the anaesthetic as a Class C drug.
The Roofie Foundation, a charity set up to help victims and named after one of GHB’s street names, roofies, welcomed the move.
”Around 5 500 people have called us to say they have been the victim of drug rape since we started the helpline about eight years ago,” the charity’s chief executive Graham Rhodes said.
”People have been getting away with using this drug for long enough,” he said.
Britain’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has recognised that GHB is being ”widely misused and has harmful effects”.
Announcing the move, junior Home Office minister Caroline Flint said: ”GHB has been used in numerous drug-assisted rapes and sexual assaults … It’s very important that we get the message across to
clubbers that this is a dangerous drug.”
The authorities said that in small doses GHB acted as an ”upper” but in larger doses the anaesthetic effect took hold, leading to potential respiratory problems. It is potentially lethal when mixed with other substances, particularly alcohol.
Some rape victims reported being incapacitated, half-aware of what was being done to them but unable to stop it. In other cases, the victim was completely unconscious.
GHB is also nicknamed GBH — in reference to the old criminal charge of grievous bodily harm — and liquid ecstasy by users. Other street names for the drug include fantasy, soap, goop, Georgia Home Boy, Organic Quaaludes, Blue Juice, Get Horny Balls and Gammo-O.
In a recent high profile legal case in the United States, Max Factor heir Andrew Luster was convicted of rape and jailed for 124 years after being convicted of using GHB in multiple rapes. – Sapa-DPA