The death of a wealthy Manhattan hotel heir this week has been loosely connected to a string of deaths potentially caused by a bad batch of the party drug GHB making its way around NYC’s gay neighborhoods.
Though Charlie Denihan (right), 28, did not identify in the media as openly gay, a few concerned tipsters have linked his premature death to two other deaths that happened in the Chelsea neighborhood within the span of four hours. All three seem to be apparent overdoses from GHB.
Denihan was a management trainee at the Denihan Hospitality Group, a development organization that operates hotels in New York, D.C., Miami, and Chicago. According to police, he was found dead in his posh Union Square high rise apartment Sunday night — crystal meth, cocaine, and GHB were found in the home.
The Post reports:
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The other two victims were men who’d been partying at a bar and then went back to the West 19th Street home of one of them, where the drug was found, sources said. Their bodies were discovered around 3:30 p.m.
There is no indication that Denihan and the men knew each other. But authorities are having the GHB from both apartments tested to see if it came from the same batch and may have been tainted, sources said.
Though no other related deaths have been reported since, it’s as good a time as any to remind partygoers of the damaging effects of drugs on the gay community.
auntsharon
Low blow to drag Cuba Gooding into this.
a new member
Cuba Gooding is gay? No!
QJ201
Bad batch = highly potent batch
In GHB there is very small amount separating a “party dose” from an “overdose.” Literally an extra 1/4 teaspoon could lead to an OD.
Well everyone seems to have forgotten the wave of overdoses from GHB in the late 90’s that turned off gay men to using the drug…including the one of the late owners of the late Splash NYC.
Richard
I fell for it. I immediately Googled “Cuba Gooding Jr. Gay”.
jckfmsincty
Once you’re an Oscar winner, you’re always a target for sensationalism.
EdWoody
Here’s a radical suggestion – how about you just not take drugs? Then you won’t die from a drug overdose. Just a thought.
Billy Budd
The worse I did was to smoke pot during my undergraduate course. And I regret it. Drugs can be fun but they are very dangerous, not only because some are life-threatening, but also because most can cause permanent mental imbalance in people who are susceptible.
SoThenWhatHappened
This is a perfect way to winnow the population of people that won’t be missed. Human beings no longer require predators to remove the weak of our herd, in their stupidity, they do that themselves.
Kieru
I wish I could feel sympathy here but I don’t. This is the risk when using illegally-obtained narcotics. There is no accountability for the quality of the product and the only assurance you have that your dealer isn’t selling you something that will absolutely kill you is blind trust.
Another aspect that drains any sympathy from me is the complete cliche of it all. A gay man dies from a bad batch of GHB … it sounds like an episode of Queer as Folk. Tragic? Yes. Avoidable? Completely.
Black Pegasus
So let me see… These drug addicts who are dying may also be wealthy and privileged? Ok got it….
All the more reason for me not to give a damn… They should make better choices. End of story!
Ben Dover
@Billy Budd: GASP – really, you smoked pot??!? What depravity and obviously that makes you an expert on every other “drug” that exists. 🙂
Billy Budd
Dear Ben, I certainly have infinitely less experience than you on drugs, and I don’t consider myself an expert. I just listed a few widely known facts about drug use.
Ben Dover
@Billy Budd: OK, but stay away from Colorado, dude!
Bromancer7
Mess with the bull, you eventually get the horns.
Ben Dover
The illegality itself creates the problem, as during Prohibition when so many people died or went blind from inappropriate or adulterated alcohol.
But it looks like most of the commenters here, if they’d lived in the ’20s, would have believed governmental bulls**t on that crazy “drug war” too, and said the victims deserved it. Nancy Reagan will be thrilled if she sees these comments!
Or maybe there are a bunch of gay Mormons posting here? Ooooh, stay away from Starbucks!
LarsNtherealboy
I’m confused. Pretty sure that pic of Charlie Deniham is Cuba Gooding Jnr. What?
neosoulsea
Mr. Denihan is on the left. That is Cuba Gooding Jr. on the right.
rand503
Doing a little googling revealed the following:
Charlie Denihan was the son of a hotel developer who is very very rich.
I found no evidence that he was gay.
I found some evidence that he had a girlfriend.
He was very hot.
Stache99
@Billy Budd: OMG!! You smoked some pot 20 years ago. The horror;)
Shannon1981
Lives could be saved if we would stop this silly drug war. All the evidence shows that people will find a way to do drugs if they really want to. So, the obvious way to prevent stuff like this from happening is to de-criminalize, tax, and regulate the quality of it.
Geeker
Here’s an idea,don’t do drugs,especially sketchy street drugs you buy in a club.
doctorB
I’m so disturbed by the vial judgemental comments on this thread! Who are you guys to feel superior to another human being?!? You don’t feel empathy for these guys? So I guess you wouldn’t feel empathy for a smoker dying of bladder cancer as he brought it on himself ? A diabetic having to get dialysis because he ate too much sugar? The fat guy clutching his chest and dropping dead cause he liked red meat?! Hell maybe even a young man dying of aids cause after all he had sex?! Don’t judge… We ALL chose our poisons . The legality of these poisons is based on money more than morals (check out some of the wrappers on your food and see if those products are legal in other countries). I happened to know Shawn – he made one fatal mistake one night. Like if you had one two many drinks and drove into a tree. But here’s the difference – last month, instead of sitting on his fat ass judging deceased folks from his recliner in the burbs …. He was traveling the world to try and get a bone marrow match for a friend who was dying of leukemia!