Drug trends

In 2000 the availability of GHB was pronounced in New Zealand. A number of people were hospitalised with respiratory depression, high levels of sedation and coma after using GHB and precursor substances. On 1 April 2000 the media reported the first fatality from a GHB related substance in New Zealand, and this was followed by numerous admissions to hospital of patients presenting with severe respiratory depression and coma after taking these substances. Along with international obligations, this provided great rational for the classification of GHB and in March 2001 the Expert Advisory Committee (EACD) produced a recommendation that GHB be scheduled as a controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.

This was in line with the United Nations Commission on drugs which voted to classify GHB under the United Nations Drug Classification Framework in 2001. New Zealand holds certain obligations under this framework and therefore, as recommended by the EACD, GHB and its related substances gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), 1,4-butandiol (1,4-B) and gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) were scheduled as Class B1 under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 on 31 May 2002.

New Zealand's experience of GHB and its precursor substances supports the World Health Organisation's assessment of GHB as a significant risk to health.

The context of GHB use in New Zealand is similar to that worldwide. The World Health Organisation noted that GHB's most current mode of use worldwide has been for its subjective, hypnotic, euphoric and hallucinogenic effects, especially in the context of the dance culture.

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 does not allow for the medicinal use of GHB.

Auckland Hospital's Department of Critical Care Medicine (DCCM) reported that there were 27 admissions to the DCCM with poisoning due to GHB and its precursors between 21 October 1999 and 29 April 2001. Out of these, four admissions occurred in 1999, eight occurred in 2001and in the last four months of 2001 there were 15 admissions.

The first death in New Zealand attributable to GHB and its precursors was reported by the media in 2001.

Findings from the Hallucinogen Module of the Illicit Drug Monitoring System in 2005 reports that in 2005, the median price for GHB was $5.00 per millilitre.