The latest report on inthemix’s Between The Lines mini-site addresses the current move by Victorian police to train sniffer dogs to detect GHB. The Australian-first trial is being carried out in response to the growing popularity of GHB, an odourless liquid that is typically consumed by adding it to water.

Oliver Markovski, from Victoria Police’s Drug and Alcohol Strategy Unit, has spent the past 12 months researching the “emerging problem” of GHB, and said while it had a small market the risk of overdose was much higher than for other drugs.

Mr Markovski said Passive Alert Detection Dogs had traditionally not been trained to pick up the drug, which had been used in the nightclub scene since the 1980s, because of safety issues with the dogs and the prevalence of chemicals used to make the drug. The chemicals used to make the drug – Gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) and 1,4-Butanediol (1,4 BD) – are industrial cleaners that convert to GHB once taken into the body.

Read the full article on the Between The Lines hub on inthemix.