Mandate GHB/GBL testing in ‘chemsex’ or drug linked sudden adult deaths

Background

We call on the UK Government to introduce a statutory requirement for coroners and forensic pathologists to mandate specific toxicology testing for GHB and GBL in all sudden deaths involving adults in suspected ‘chemsex’ environments and drug-facilitated crimes.

Additional details

GHB and GBL are widely used in UK chemsex, yet, in our view, fatal poisonings remain invisible. Standard post-mortem toxicology panels omit GHB, which clears the body in hours. Despite a low number of deaths recorded yearly, many consider this an underestimate. We believe that in private chemsex settings fatalities are routinely misattributed to cardiac arrest or natural causes. We therefore call for mandating specific testing to expose predatory harm, bring justice to LGBTQ+ communities, and to provide the data needed to save lives.

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