The little-known history of GHB, from anesthetic to pre-workout to dangerous party drug

It may be taboo, but using performance enhancing drugs before a workout is nothing new, whether it’s steroids, creatine, or stimulants. The thought of using party drugs before a workout, though — GHB, to be exact — is taking Gay Twitter™ by surprise.

GHB, commonly known as G, is known in the gay community as a party drug that causes a euphoric feeling and can increase the sex drive. But it’s also one of the most dangerous drugs in the clubbing scene. Mess up the dosage and the drug can become lethal; it was even the weapon of choice for the so-called “Grindr serial killer” in London in 2015, who used the drug to incapacitate his victims.

Given G’s reputation, you can imagine the shock when one Twitter user came across an image of a discarded plastic vial in a gym bathroom, suggesting a gymgoer had used G before their workout.

Naturally, most folks thought this was crossing a line.

But one user pointed out that, though it’s not a wise decision, using G as a pre-workout drug isn’t unheard of given its little-known history as an alleged muscle-growth enhancer.

GHB was first developed in the 1920s, and in the ‘60s, it was marketed as an anesthetic. It never found wide use in medicine, though, as it caused seizures in patients.

In 1990, GHB was reintroduced as a health-food product. It was marketed to bodybuilders, claiming to have anabolic effects that could encourage muscle growth. But that was never medically proven, and as GHB predictably caused negative health effects, it was again removed from the market. As of 2000, the FDA recognized GHB as a Schedule I controlled substance, meaning it has no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.

But that didn’t stop G’s continued use in the rave scene of the early 2000s. With street names including “liquid ecstasy” and “fantasy,” it was often sold by the capful in clubs or smuggled in from outside, something easy to do given the drug’s unassuming appearance. As G gained notoriety for its use by sexual predators, it fell out of favor with many demographics, but notably, not with gay and bisexual men.

In 2019, Buzzfeed worked with the U.K. program Dispatches to create a documentary about GHB usage, including surveying more than 5,000 GHB users. Of those surveyed, 2,700 (or 54% of respondents) identified as gay or bisexual men. The survey painted a bleak picture of GHB’s effect on the queer community: 28% of respondents reported having been sexually assaulted while on GHB, and 82% reported knowing someone who had been sexually assaulted while on GHB. More than 25% of respondents said they knew someone who had died from the drug.

“It’s like a roulette wheel of death,” one documentary subject told a researcher. “We need to get the message out how dangerous this stuff is.”

Related:

This new study about GHB use among gay and bi men is truly terrifying

“It’s like a roulette wheel of death,” one person said. “We need to get the message out how dangerous this stuff is.”