In the wake of the lurid events that played out in suburban Atlanta last weekend, the New York Daily News has learned that another drug may have been part of a deadly cocktail that could have caused Chris Benoit to snap.

According to sources familiar with his drug regimen, Benoit was a known abuser of the drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate — or GHB, also known as the “date-rape drug.” Benoit was known to have used GHB with former wrestler “Gentleman” Chris Adams when both men competed for the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the late `90s. They used the drug together until Adams’ death in 2001, according to sources who knew both men, and friends say Benoit was still using it as recently as two years ago.

“Benoit was a GHB user and he did it with Chris Adams,” the source told The News. “The question is, does GHB use play into what happened (in Fayetteville)?”

Authorities are still waiting for toxicology results on Benoit, but would be unable to detect GHB in his system without a complicated test conducted on his hair sample. Still, Benoit’s past use of GHB opens up the seamy side of the wrestling world.

“Everybody in the wrestling business had a liking for GHB back (in the `90s),” says a Benoit family friend. “The whole business was on it.”

GHB, which increases sexual prowess and boosts energy among other effects, is a Schedule I controlled substance commonly referred to as the “date-rape drug” and is illegal.

The Benoit family friend corresponded with Nancy Benoit just weeks before her death but noticed nothing unusual. “She told me, `I’m driving Chris crazy, but it’s a short trip,”’ the friend says with a laugh. “I don’t think this is a monster acting out. I really don’t buy that.”

If Benoit was indeed still using GHB — or if he was trying to kick a habit and suffering from withdrawal — it is likely he would have become violent.

“You see guys that are on (GHB) who go on rages,” says Trinka Porrata, a retired Los Angeles police detective who is president of the non-profit Project GHB and who has counseled and detoxed GHB addicts, including several professional wrestlers. “But another possibility, which is more likely, is GHB withdrawal.

If (Benoit) tried to stop using it and went into withdrawal, that would explain the bizarre behavior — the text messages, the Bible and the suicide especially. You can suffer a terrible depression coming off this stuff. It’s not a quit cold turkey drug.”

Porrata adds that it is not uncommon for GHB users to add methamphetamine into the mix, and that meth abuse often contributes to bizarre acts involving religion.

“The question everybody asks is, `How in the hell could you kill your son?’ Well, in a meth psychosis, your son could be the devil. That can happen quite easily,” says Porrata.