'My gifted son died horrifically from GBL. You must be aware of its dangers'

CHRIS Dyer knew what the substance he was taking could do to him. Every time the 24-year-old used the odourless, colourless liquid he would phone his mother, Suzanne. "Because he knew each dose might be the last," she explained. "He said he wanted to hear his mum's voice before he died."

The substance was GBL, gamma-Butyrolactone, a legal chemical sold as a common solvent in dozens of High Street products and freely available on the internet. It is also addictive and deadly and it killed Chris, from Peebles, in the Borders, in March this year. He is understood to be the first Scot whose death has been linked to the "legal high", which is almost certain to become a banned drug by the end of this month.

Suzanne Dyer has now decided to break her silence on her son's tragic death because she knows GBL will be on offer over the next few weeks as students return to academic life. Best known as a legitimate chemical precursor of the date-rape drug GHB, the substance has quickly become a clubland favourite.

Some clubbers call it "liquid ecstasy", others, "coma in a bottle". Doctors and drug specialists, inevitably, are only just starting to catch up with the trend.

UK Home Secretary Alan Johnson is expected to clamp down on GBL this month as evidence grows of how hazardous GBL can be, particularly when mixed with alcohol. A month after Chris died, a 21-year-old medical student Hester Stewart, was found dead at a house in Brighton. Some estimates put the number of deaths in the UK so far at 20 but with no routine screening for the drug in place precise numbers are hard to pin down.

Suzanne Dyer, petting her son's two-year-old Labrador Robbie in her home last week, has a straightforward aim. "I don't have all the answers," she said when asked if she backed a GBL ban. "But I think people need to have information about what this substance can do to them.

"My son died horrifically due to addiction to GBL. He had been a typical, fun-loving graduate who loved clubbing with his friends. It would make some meaning of my family's grief to at least have the dangers of this highly dangerous drug acknowledged in the hope other families will not suffer our devastating loss."

GBL destroyed Chris Dyer's life, but not quickly. Hoping his story will "stick in people's minds" as schools and colleges reopen, she described how. "We know Chris was introduced to GBL in a club," she said. "Later he said he found it a way of relaxing and getting to sleep. Sometimes he took it at night when he felt particularly stressed."

With a growing dependency, the marketing and enterprise graduate took the drug in March 2006, on the weekend before a big job interview. But then he got worried, fearing the substance would affect his performance. So he went to the doctor and complained he couldn't sleep. He got tablets, which he took instead of his usual GBL.

The following morning he got up at 6am, opened a window he thought was his front door, and fell 50ft to the ground. He lost his front teeth, damaged his spinal cord and lost most of the use of his legs.

Later, his suit jacket and work portfolio were found neatly laid out. Chris, who had a history of sleep walking, had thought he was on his way to his interview. Instead, he spent 10 months in hospital - and the rest of his too short life in a wheelchair.

"We don't know exactly what caused his accident," Suzanne said yesterday. "I suspect it was a combination of withdrawal from GBL, the sleeping pills and his own propensity to sleep walk."

However, Chris blamed GBL and himself for taking the drug. Somehow, although telling his mother that he was "cheerful on the outside, screaming on the inside", the once-keen snowboarder and canoeist began to mentally recover. He decided to live independently in his own home and even learned to pull himself to his feet.

"We were so proud," Suzanne said. "Then he had his setback." That came at a party in Edinburgh. There Chris, having found a way to stay upright, leaned against a radiator. With little or no feeling below his waist, he didn't realise he was burning holes in his bottom as he did so. The wounds took many weeks to heal.

His mental state deteriorated. "When he finally went back to live in his own home, he found he was suffering panic attacks and nightmares about his fall," Suzanne said. "This was when he took the decision to take GBL again to shut out his terrible dreams."

At times Chris broke free from the drug. He returned to university and graduated. But what Suzanne, 52, and other friends and relatives didn't know was how devastating withdrawal from the drug can be.

Suzanne said: "He suffered intense irritation to his throat. He had terrible sickness, including vomiting blood. He had seizures and acute psychosis, which led him to have terrible waking nightmares."

Chris was repeatedly in hospital with various injuries or because he stopped breathing. Then came the third anniversary of his accident. Chris took a large shot of GBL, ending up in hospital again after hurting his face and foot. But, without telling his family, he secretly discharged himself. He went home alone and had another, final and fatal accident. Doctors found traces of GBL in his blood.

"Chris was a fantastic son," Suzanne said. "He was a great friend to me and to everyone in his family. He couldn't handle his spinal injuries because he felt in some way he had brought them on to himself. He was eaten up by it, the fact that he had done that to himself and his life and his family."

Chris Dyer made his own GBL, from the everyday products in which it can be found. But the substance can also be bought – readily and legally – online, or at many clubs, where it is usually used as a chill-out drug.

Drug awareness charity Crew 2000 said it was aware of at least eight heavy users of GBL coming forward for help this year alone - compared with one last year.

John Arthur, of Edinburgh-based Crew 2000, said: "Some of those who get dependant need to take it every hour to stop them from becoming psychotic," he said.

Whitehall sources have confirmed that GBL is likely to be classified as a Class C drug by the end of August – it is already banned for personal use in the US, Canada and Sweden – in line with recommendations from the Home Office's drug advisers after a consultation that ended earlier this summer.

Suzanne can see why: "There is an illogicality about GBL being legal while GHB, which is almost identical, is Class C. GBL is probably as dangerous as heroin. And you would not be able to go and buy a product off the shelf containing that."

Deadly effects

GBL is a colourless, oily liquid that is used as a solvent in chemistry and in products including stain remover, superglue remover, and paint stripper.

Although it has no "active" effect in its own right, GBL is rapidly converted into the hazardous GHB, the controlled anaesthetic drug which has become widely abused – and has become known as the date-rape drug – by enzymes found in the blood.

At low doses it has a euphoric effect, which is why it is sometimes called liquid ecstasy. At higher doses it acts like a sedative and can make the user unconscious very quickly. The hypnotic effect is enhanced by alcohol and GBL overdose can cause severe sickness, coma and death.

One victim was Hester, a molecular medicine student at Sussex University. Her mother, Maryon Stewart, said: "

It's just beyond belief that something like this could have happened."