Franz Lao had a few quiet hours at work so he left the office to take some meth and drink some G. When he returned to the office later to present at a 6 p.m.
corporate board meeting, he was high, but he felt great. "Then all of a sudden the G starts to surpass the meth," he recalled, "and I started just 'falling out' in the board meeting." To his co-workers, it looked as though he had suddenly become drunk and manic.
That was back in 2009, when Lao was using Gamma-hydroxybutyrate, known as GHB or G, every few hours. He got fired after that board meeting and started to use G even more.
Jobs were harder to come by as the nation spiraled into the Great Recession. One morning after losing his job, he woke up and went looking for his car so he could go out and buy more G. "I walked around the block — I couldn't find it," he said.