GHB FAQ: Date rape drugs

GHB FAQ: Date rape drugs Is GHB a date-rape drug?

First, the good news: much of the information to appear in the media about GHB's potential as a date-rape drug has been contradictory and just plain incorrect. Some authors have even confused it with Rohypnol. Others claim that it can cause amnesia, nymphomania, or sedation so profound that the malefactor could "perform surgery" on his victim.

GHB causes amnesia only in the sense that someone who takes a sedative dose will not remember what happenes while he or she is asleep. All relaxant drugs can impair the encoding of new memories to some extent. Failing to remember something as traumatic as sexual assault, however, is unprecedented. This would require a state like an alcohol-induced "blackout," which GHB has not been observed to produce (anyone taking that much will simply fall asleep).

GHB has been touted as a "prosexual" drug because it increases male erectile capacity and may make female orgasm more pleasurable. It does not have the ability to create sexual desire from nothing - nor does any other drug.

Although very high doses of GHB may produce sleep from which it is difficult to rouse the subject, the quantity required to produce a fully anaesthetic coma would be huge. It certainly does not overlap with the dose that could produce the traditional date-rape scenario, in which an inebriated but still mobile victim is abducted from a bar by her "friend."

The bad news is that GHB can nonetheless be used as a date-rape drug. It interacts with alcohol to produce a much deeper (and more dangerous) sedation, so adulterating drinks at bars or parties would be especially feasible. There have been a few documented cases of this occurring. However, there is little evidence that the practice is widespread. Statistics on GHB in the urine of rape victims are all but meaningless, since other drugs or trauma may cause the brain to produce its own GHB in similar quantities, as discussed in the Hillory Farias section of the FAQ. There is also the possibility that the victim voluntarily took GHB prior to being attacked. On the other hand, GHB's quick metabolism may keep us from detecting it in every case in which it was used.

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Relevant sections of the FAQ:

"Isn't GHB that date-rape drug?"
"What are GHB's effects?"
"What about Hillory Farias?"