In front of the influx of testimonials, several calls to the boycott of establishments were launched in Belgium. And the phenomenon also concerns the United Kingdom and France. At issue, the GHB or “drug from the rapist”, ingested to their knowledge by the victims.
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Hundreds of testimonials tell the same story: evenings, black holes and sexual assaults, occurred in Brussels. These stories, gathered since mid-October on the Page Instagram @BALANCE_TON_BAR (more than 21,000 subscribers), managed by Maïté Meeus and Dounia Salimi, have recently become a movement. In particular against the many cases of drugs paid in women’s glasses, and some men, without their consent. Most often GHB, nicknamed “drug from rapist” because of its anesthetic effect and difficulties in identifying it after the victims. In Belgium, but also in England, several boy boycotts were organized. The last one was launched for the 12th of November.
Forbidden since 1999
Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (or GHB) was synthesized in the 1920s, then by Professor Henri labs in the early 1960s. It is long used as anesthetic for surgical operations during experimental treatments against the Narcolepsy, or instead of steroids for bodybuilding, mainly in the United States. Until it, in 1999, classified as amazing in France before being in 2003 in the United Kingdom. But recreational use, and therefore illegal, of what is nicknamed “Liquid Ecstasy” in the 1990s continues.
An increase in overdoses
Today, consumers often use GBL, a forbidden but more accessible paint solvent that turns into GHB once in the body. Its effects are the same: floating, euphoria and increase of libido. It has become a very popular recreational substance in Chemsex – Chemicals and Sex contraction, either sex with drug taking.
Since 2018, the number of overdoses, nicknamed “G-Holes” increases in Parisian night facilities, to the point of becoming a public health problem. The United States faces the same phenomenon: the New York Times has designated the Chemsex like “AIDS number 2”, because of the number of deaths.
Condoms for glass “
In France, the cases of GHB poured into the glasses are legion since the reopening of the bars and, in July, nightclubs. Following Belgian and British protest movements, the testimonies of French students multiply.
Some fifty cases are listed in Montpellier, a student has been positive at GHB in Grenoble and an investigation has been opened in Tours. To take less risk, the bars now offer covers, nicknamed “condoms for glass”.