Former police chief Brian Paddick opens up about boyfriend’s death from chemsex drug
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A former high-ranking police chief from London has opened up in a wide-ranging interview about how his boyfriend accidentally overdosed on chemsex drug GHB, which caused his death in 2013.
Speaking to Buzzfeed News, Brian Paddick, who was the highest-ranking gay police officer in Britain for a period of time, and served as commander of the London borough of Lambeth, said he needed to speak out so others would know about the dangers of the drug.
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GHB, which is also known as GBL, is used as an anaesthetic, but is also used by some people who attend chemsex parties to loosen inhibitions. However, many do not know that the substance is incredibly easy to overdose on.
Paddick met Michael in the late 1990s, and several years later, they became a couple and shortly afterwards moved in together.
In the interview, he said that Michael was “a party boy” and that he “knew everything there was to know about drugs”.
While their relationship ended in 2005, Paddick says that they became even closer emotionally after they separated.
Paddick got married to his new boyfriend in 2009, around the same time as Michael’s personal life began to fall apart.
In 2013, he received a devastating phone call from Michael’s brother, telling him that Michael was in intensive care in hospital and that he was brain dead.
The inquest later revealed that Michael had gone to a chemsex party the day he died. One of the hosts of the party revealed that he went to the bathroom to take GHB on arrival, but that he soon realised that he had made a mistake which would turn out to be fatal: he had taken two doses.
Michael thought that if he made himself sick, he would be fine, however shortly after doing so, he fell asleep on the couch and started snoring.
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The coroner interrupted at the inquest to point out that when somebody who has taken GHB starts snoring, it means they have overdosed and that their respiratory system is shutting down.
In the heartbreaking interview, Paddick said that Michael’s death shows “just how dangerous the drug is.”
He also revealed that he didn’t feel that he could speak openly about Michael’s death because of the illegality of drugs, and his own history working for the police.
Paddick also drew attention to the fact that GHB is currently just a class C drug, which puts it on the same level as steroids and sedatives. It is classified as lower than cannabis.
