Melbourne faces River Phoenix drug epidemic fear.

A BATCH of the party drug that killed Hollywood actor River Phoenix had caused a mini-epidemic of overdoses in Melbourne's nightclub scene, health authorities have said.

Victorian Health Minister John Thwaites said a particularly dangerous batch of fantasy (gamma-hydroxybutyrate, also known as liquid ecstasy) had put five young men in The Alfred Hospital last weekend. He said the five, aged between 18 and 30, were lucky to have been resuscitated because most deaths from the designer drug occurred when it was mixed with alcohol.

"If people are drinking and taking this drug then the effects can be tragic," Mr Thwaites said.

"It's been reported to me that this is the drug that River Phoenix died of and so that just shows the results of taking this drug."

Mr Thwaites joined with the Alfred's director of emergency services, Associate Professor Mark Fitzgerald, in warning people against taking the potentially lethal drug this weekend.

Prof Fitzgerald said usually one person every few months was admitted having overdosed on fantasy; five over a three-day period constituted a "mini-epidemic".

"It's a bit like the old barbiturates. People are taking the dose, they don't feel much, they take another dose and then they overdose," he said.

"It's either more people are taking it and are unfamiliar with its dangers or alternatively there's a strong batch around at the moment or both."

The drug acts as a general anaesthetic, switching off the brain and stopping breathing. It comes in purple or red liquid form and is either drunk or sprayed into the mouth.

"A lot of the people that we've had in ... I wouldn't call them experienced drug takers," Professor Fitzgerald said.

"I mean they've been offered something and they've taken it and they've ended up on a ventilator in the Alfred."

He said there was no antidote for the drug, which was supposed to enhance sexual sensitivity.
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• Melbourne
• fantasy