Club Drugs: GHB, Rohypnol, Ketamine, & Klonopin

Rohypnol and GHB are two commonly abused club drugs that are often know as “date rape drugs” because they are often employed to render victims incapable of resisting sexual assault.

Other drugs associated with club and party use are Ketamine and Klonopin. People take Ketamine or “Special K” to produce alternate states of consciousness similar to the effects of LSD.

GHB

Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) increases sociability, and causes intoxication and feelings of euphoria. Unlike alcohol, just one teaspoon of GHB can make people feel relaxed, “dreamy,” and sexy. The effect is twice as strong if GHB is mixed with alcohol. The street names for GHB when it is used this way include liquid dream, Fantasy, Liquid Ecstasy, Jib, and somatomax.

Abusers of GHB buy it illegally in little bottles, the size of nail polish containers, and more rarely as white powder or pills. GHB users drink their drug by the capful, or mix the powder with water and then either inject or sip it.

Many people become dependent on GHB either by using it at clubs and parties or as a bodybuilding supplement. Abusers “sip caps” as often as every thirty minutes all day long. Typical signs of GHB abuse are intoxication, slurred speech, poor coordination, silliness, stupor, and a phenomenon in which the person’s head suddenly snaps back involuntarily.

Since most users mix alcohol with their GHB, the biggest danger to their health is that this combination eventually causes liver failure.

Another danger of GHB abuse is death by overdose. The problem is that GHB abusers can never know for sure what the level of concentration of drug is contained in their little illegal bottles. People have died very quickly after sipping just one capful. Deaths by overdose of GHB in combination with alcohol, tranquilizers, or methamphetamine are extremely common, particularly in large cities.

People who develop GHB dependencies go through withdrawal symptoms when they try to quit. These can be delirium, convulsions, anxiety, restlessness, sweating, tightness in the chest, vomiting, insomnia, rapid heart beat, moodiness, and depression. It can take between two to 21 days to go through withdrawal, and it is best done in a drug treatment facility under medical supervision.

GHB is often used as a precursor to sexual assault because it is almost completely undetectable. The street names of GHB as a date rape drug are Georgia Home Boy, Get Her to Bed, Great Hormones at Bedtime, Grievous Body Harm, Easy Lay, Liquid X, Everclear, Xrater, Scoop, and Scoop Her.

Rohypnol & Klonopin

Rohypnol abusers most commonly use it to enhance the effects of heroin. The drug can be deadly when mixed with alcohol. Rohypnol is also a date rape drug because, like GHB, it is odorless, tasteless, and colorless. Klonopin has a relaxing effect, like taking a tranquilizer. Both Klonopin and Rohypnol usually come in pill form.

People can and do become dependent on Rohypnol and Klonopin, which are both in the benzodiazepine family. Benzodiazepines, used medically to treat anxiety, seizure disorders, and insomnia, are among the most commonly abused drugs in the United States.

Klonopin is ranked sixth in the top ten list of most abused drugs, and many young people begin their cycle of Klonopin abuse by using it first socially at clubs and parties.