The state government will move to put GHB traffickers behind bars for life under proposed laws set to be tabled in Parliament this week.

The controlled substance, called 1,4-Butanediol, is legitmately used as a cleaning agent but when it is ingested by users their livers turn the bute into GHB.

Often sold in fish-shaped soy sauce bottles, the liquid has been linked to dozens of overdoses in nightclubs and at music festivals across Melbourne.

Police seize hundreds of litres of the chemical used to make GHB. Credit:Jason South

Police Minister Lisa Neville said the new laws would particularly target those organised crime syndicates behind the chemical's importation into Victoria.