Plan to ban 'date-rape' chemicals

Drinks have been spiked with 'date-rape' drugs in bars and nightclubs

Two chemicals which create "date-rape" drug GHB when combined would be banned across the UK under Home Office plans.

Gamma-butyrolactone and 1,4 butanediol are available in cleaning fluids and industrial solvents, but when swallowed together they turn into GHB.

Scientific advisors have suggested these were increasingly becoming "a legal substitute" for GHB and may have been used in sexual attacks.

The chemical industry will be consulted before any change to the law is made.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs found people who consumed either substance could develop a "dependence" if taken regularly, as well as falling unconscious or even being killed "by intoxication".

Sporting drugs

One of the drugs - 1,4 butanediol - is also used in the coating of some toys.

Its potential side-effects were highlighted earlier this year when a seven-year-old girl from London nearly died after eating beads with the substance on them.

She suffered breathing problems and lost consciousness as a result.

The announcement by the Home Office also outlined plans to control 26 anabolic steroids and growth-promoting drugs, on top of almost 60 which are already illegal.

The substances are banned by sporting authorities but they are not currently listed as controlled drugs.

Minister Vernon Coaker said the move would be particularly relevant to those who aspired to Olympic success.

He said people "may think that anabolic steroids can enhance their performance, but they can in fact have serious health consequences."