Create meetup in Berlinchevron_right
Select a place on the map to change the location.
I want to meet
Verified required?
want to meet at fmd_good Steeped
want to meet at fmd_good Hole in One
want to meet at fmd_good The Spot
explore Berlin Guides
Berlin Hidden Gems (2026)
kirstin
Berlin on a Budget: Tips 2026
annette
Where to Stay in Berlin (2026)
frieda
3 Days in Berlin: Itinerary 2026
rabeakurth
Things to Do in Berlin (2026)
viktoria
Best Food in Berlin (2026)
bar_chart Trends in Berlin
Why are there no stricter laws against use of GHB in Berlin?
My former housemate died from this dangerous drug and I almost lost an ex boyfriend to this drug. A few people have been drugged and assaulted with this drug. Last year I saw some flowers and candles outside in Kreuzberg and asked around, and of course a young person died from GHB.
Still it remains a favorite in Berlin clubs. Dark rooms are saturated with people dosing themselves with GHB. Whenever I mention it, they defend it like "you have to know the right dose" or "you can die by accident when crossing the street". The most I've seen is a warning on the wall of a few bars, warning people to watch their drinks and "beware of knockout drug". I still believe more could be done.
Why are there no stricter laws against this dangerous drug in Berlin? Why is it still allowed in clubs? Why are they turning a blind eye to this drug while people are dying from it?
the medical side is actually where berlin is failing the hardest. there's a hospital in neukölln that sees like a dozen GHB cases a month, mostly young people who got spiked or misdosed, and they basically just pump the stomach and send them home. no follow up, no counseling, no tracking of repeat incidents. if the city actually logged these cases and shared the data with venues, you'd see a map of problem spots pretty fast.
also the darkroom thing you mentioned, that's a consent issue people don't wanna talk about. GHB is the only drug where the line between "recreational" and "assault" is purely about the other person's awareness. there's no way to police intent, so the law just throws its hands up. but clubs could at least ban open vials and require staff to check on anyone who's unresponsive for more than a minute or two. that's not a law change, that's a house rule change, and it would save lives.
berlin's approach is basically "let adults make bad choices and hope it doesn't blow up." it's not gonna change unless someone important gets hurt, which is grim but true.
i think the missing piece here is that berlin's drug policy is basically run by the health department, not the cops, and they're stuck in a "abstinence first" mindset from the 90s. they'd rather fund another anti-drug campaign poster than actually engage with the reality that GHB is part of the club scene. the dussmann bookstore even sells books on safe dosing, but the city won't touch that with a ten foot pole.
the real lever would be making the clubs report every overdose to the gesundheitsamt as a condition of their license. right now there's zero data, so politicians can say "we don't have evidence it's a problem." if kitkat or about blank had to file incident reports every time someone went to the hospital, you'd see the numbers spike and suddenly there'd be political will. but no venue wants that on paper, so they just let people sleep it off in the corner.
also, the "knockout drug" framing is doing a disservice. GHB is the same molecule as the party drug, and the people defending it aren't wrong that it can be safe. the issue is that it's sold as a powder or liquid with wildly varying purity, and the street stuff in berlin is often cut with something sketchier. a legal ban won't fix that, but a regulated amnesty bin outside every club might. nobody's gonna use a testing service if they think the cops are waiting outside
fwiw the "why no stricter laws" bit is kinda missing the point, GHB is already illegal under the BtMG as a schedule I substance. the real issue is that it's a date rape drug AND a party drug at the same time, so the legal frame gets confused. cops see it as a club thing, not a predator thing, so they treat it like a nuisance instead of a weapon.
the other thing nobody mentions is the scene culture. in Berlin's queer and techno scenes, GHB has this weird "community" vibe where people think they're looking out for each other, so there's zero social stigma. i've seen people literally pass out in Kantine am Berghain and folks just step over them like it's normal. that's not a law problem, that's a norms problem, and you can't legislate that away.
what would actually change something is making the clubs liable. right now the license is basically a formality, but if venues had to prove they have trained staff and a documented incident protocol to keep their license, you'd see change in a year. the police know which spots are bad, they just don't wanna do the paperwork.
load 2 more replies
What is the correct spelling for a street name that appears differently on multiple signs in Charlottenburg?
Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.
if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point
honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.