Netherlands National Drug Monitor - Research and Documentation ...

• GHB use among school-goers is low. In most EU member states, including the Netherlands,
no more than 1 percent of school-goers aged 15-16 had ever tried GHB, with
the exception of Austria, Italy, Germany and Denmark, where the figure was 2%.
GHB use appears to be more common among clubbers and frequenters of dance
parties.
• There are no internationally comparable studies. The results of mainly local surveys
conducted among attendees of dance parties show percentages of ever use of GHB
varying from 17.4 percent in the Netherlands (Amsterdam) and 13 percent in Belgium,
to 6.7 percent in the Czech Republic, 5.9 percent in Hungary and 5.8 percent in the
U.K. Because the methods differ between studies and between countries, the results
should be interpreted with caution (EMCDDA, 2009).
• Ever use of GHB among clubbers (average age 24) in New York city in 2005/2006
was 22 percent (Parsons et al., 2009). Recent use (during the past four months) of
GHB was less than five percent of the clubbers.
• Ever use of GHB among regular Ecstasy users in Australia (average age 24) increased
from 5 percent in 2000 to 40 percent in 2006. The percentage of users in the six
months prior to the survey rose during that period from 1 percent to 21 percent
(Dunn et al., 2009). The number of days of use in the past half year in 2006 varied
from 1 to 40 ml (median dose 3 ml). On a ‘typical’ day 0.25 to 20 ml GHB was taken
(median 3.5 ml); and on a ‘heavy’ day, the dose was 0.25 to 40 ml (median 6 ml).
6.6 Treatment demand
Addiction Care Services
In 2008/2009 various organisations for addiction care and prevention throughout the
Netherlands have reported a rise in the number of requests for treatment in relation
to GHB (Trimbos Institute, 2009a). However, national data are incomplete. GHB is
registered as a separate substance in the LADIS database only since 2008. The as yet
incomplete data show that in 2008 145 primary GHB clients were registered with LADIS.
For 49 clients, GHB was a secondary substance (IVZ, 2009).
• Addiction care in the North of the country (Noord Nederland) reported 62 GHB
clients in 2008 for the regions of Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe, compared to 22
in 2007.
• The region Gelderland reported a rise in GHB use, but seldom as a primary problem,
with some 20 people receiving treatment, compared to only two in 2004.
• In the second half of 2008, addiction care in Brabant registered around 50 requests
for treatment in connection with GHB dependence. By 2009, the number had risen
to 80.
• Many other regions in the Netherlands have also identified a rise in treatment demand;
however no definite figures have been reported.
138 Netherlands National Drug Monitor - NDM Annual Report 2009