The number of people taken to hospital after taking the date rape drug GHB has quadrupled over the past five years, according to the consumer safety institute Consument en Veiligheid.

Last year, 980 people needed help at accident and emergency departments after taking gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, which is primarily used as an anesthetic but is increasingly taken as a recreational drug.
Some 40% of those going to hospital were admitted for an overnight stay and at least half of them ended up in intensive care.
Most users had taken the drug in combination with alcohol or other narcotics. Just 3% claimed they had been given it unknowingly, the institute said.