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GBH: Pressure Points
Pressure. You know the feeling—there’s no doubt your head is going to explode, someone’s screaming at you, and you just shut down. You’d give anything to be somewhere else.
What if I told you for just five dollars you could feel good all over and forget all your problems? OK, so you might end up unconscious, on a respirator, raped, or even dead, but everything has risks. You’d think I was crazy wouldn’t you? You’d be right. But some teens think gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) is the escape route from pressure. Liquid Ecstasy, G, Georgia Home Boy, Jungle Juice—the names for this trip are as endless as the side effects.
Teens I talked to admitted they are basically against drugs; however, 31 percent confessed they have tried them at one time or another because, they said, life’s hard, and sometimes it’s not so easy figuring out what to do. Sometimes the pressure gets to be too much. One high school senior explained, “Many teens don’t know what’s going on with their life. They get so confused, and plus, parents add pressure. School problems always become an excuse to take drugs, plus wanting to be cool. I think teenagers just want to forget about their problems.”
GHB, the official name for Liquid Ecstasy will make you forget all right. Within 30 minutes of ingesting you will experience drowsiness, forgetfulness, loss of muscle tone, decreased heartbeat and breathing—which is why it’s the perfect date rape drug. This is often followed by a coma-like state which lasts 1-2 hours.
So why do teens use it? There’s no odor, so GHB is harder for parents to detect. But it does show up in urine tests for up to 12 hours, and the number of overdoses are steadily increasing as its popularity in dance clubs, raves, and trances increases. It’s especially dangerous when mixed with alcohol.
Teens are smart, and 96 percent of those I surveyed knew that mixing alcohol with Liquid X would be a bad thing. In fact that practice is increasing GHB deaths, causing it to kill more users than Ecstasy.
There’s only a small difference between just enough GHB and an overdose, but that small amount can cause you to stop breathing, which is why it’s important to watch your friend’s back. If you suspect someone you know has been using or has been slipped the drug without their knowledge, if you have trouble waking them up or feeling a pulse, get medical help immediately. Don’t wait around to see if they’re OK—waiting around could mean you’re signing their book at the local funeral home. It’s gruesome, I know, but so are the facts.
Those same teens who said it was crazy to use GHB feel confused about what exactly constitutes drug use. Being addicted to drugs is one thing, but using occasionally is another—at least according to the teens I spoke with. Experimenting with drugs is drug use. Whatever you call it, however often you do it, the effects can be lethal.
Even with all the school and community programs to “Just say no,” peer pressure was a major reason given for trying illegal substances. If everyone else is doing it, it just feels strange to say no. Plus, we all want to fit in. Then there are all those problems coming from so many different directions. Before you know it, saying yes gets easier and saying yes more often doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.
Once they take the drug for the first time, they get addicted to it because they feel better. So they start taking it more often. There is a euphoric effect to GHB. There’s also a progressive decreased susceptibility to the drug’s effects. The longer you take it, the more you need. Not a good thing. While you were zoning, those problems didn’t go away. They’re still waiting for you.
“The main reason most teens use drugs is because they can’t handle the pressure of friends or life in general,” one teen said. High school students know about that sort of pressure. “They like to know they have a way to escape reality, whether it’s through alcohol, physical pain, or drugs. Anyone can be a victim of the pressure of life. You just have to be strong and remember the consequences and wonder if it’s really worth a few minutes of bliss.”
Don’t lie to yourself. Those moments of bliss can carry a high cost.
Or you could start being there for each other. There’s a thought. We could actually talk to each other. Work out some of the problems. Be a friend. You don’t have to buy friendship in a bottle, look up the formula on the Internet, or carefully measure the dosage. Just be a friend. Works pretty well. It always has.
For more information on GHB,
go to www.dea.gov/concern/ghb_factsheet.html. |
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