Dancedrug warning after death of young woman

Police yesterday issued a warning about the potential dangers of the legal
dance drug known as GBH which is believed to have claimed its second victim
in Britain.

Andrea Murphy, 25, of Wigan, was found dead in her bedroom by a friend on
Sunday morning and investigations revealed that she had taken the drug,
gamma hydroxy butyrate, shortly before she died.

In March last year, Abby Reading, 21, a bar worker, took the drug with a
small amount of alcohol at a friend's house in Stourbridge, West Midlands.
She was found collapsed the next day. An inquest was told she died of heart
and respiratory failure.

The drug heightens sexual awareness and is becoming popular on the dance
scene.

The Department of Health is investigating several companies for making the
drug, which is illegal to produce but not to use or possess. It was banned
in the United States after it was blamed for causing comas, seizures,
respiratory collapse and nausea.

A postmortem examination on Ms Murphy yesterday proved inconclusive and
further forensic tests are taking place.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: "It's a terribly risky drug
to use because dosages affect people differently."

Ms Murphy's parents, Patrick and Kath, released a statement saying: "Her
death would not be totally wasted if the message that these chemicals, and
GHB is only a chemical, could kill is passed to others who may contemplate
its use and thereby stop to think, and not take what they believe is an
enhancer but could be a killer."

Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent