Venues have used the system for years, but it is rare for Melbourne club owners, wary of being cast as having a drug problem, to go public and threaten drug users with lifetime bans.

Melbourne clubs have been using the technology since 2006 and there are now 33 Victorian venues on Scantek. There are almost 4500 active bans across the country and nearly 1500 in Victoria with men accounting for 84 per cent of bans. Drug use or possession accounts for about 20 per cent of prohibitions, while threatening or violent behaviour is responsible for 43 per cent.

"An individual who has been given a lifetime ban at one venue, will be flagged by all venues," he said.

Club staff can opt to ban a patron for a month, three months, six months or for life and provide explanations that can be seen by all the venues that use the system.

"It was becoming four or five ambulances per club per night. GHB was wrecking the scene. So we put it out on Facebook 14-15 months ago that anyone using GHB in our industry, you get a life ban and it's a life ban. I've personally banned 100 people," he said.

He said use of GHB has almost "vanished" but now, perhaps in its place, is ice. Mr Giles said ice was not a problem in his club, but it was difficult to detect given it causes users to stay awake and party rather than almost drop dead like they did on GHB.

It's also hard to pick-up because of the way ice is consumed. A user isn't exactly going to light an ice pipe in a club (plumes of smoke are a bit of a give-away) and Mr Giles said people would often sneak-out to carparks near clubs to inhale it. GHB, on the other hand, is a clear liquid that can be slipped into drinks.

Even if club owners say it is not a problem in their venues, its prevalence in the community has become well-publicised with its link to violent crime and social and health destruction. It is only in the last month that the gay community started to talk about it in the mainstream media.

The parliamentary inquiry into ice, tabled at the start of the month, recommended campaigns to target its use, while Fairfax Media revealed it had become so widely used by gay men it was being sold on dating app Grindr.