GHB, GBL and 1,4B

[dr.gbl]

Here is a write up on the facts of GHB, GBL and 1,4B, Im posting this as a message for awareness and well being. Ive been on GBL for about 2 years now and feel that theres so many faulse do's and dont's around the net causing people to have lack of knowledge about GHB, GBL and 1,4B. The best way to learn about GHB, GBL and 1,4B is from a personal message from someone who has1st hand experience. Please anyone who feels they might want to correct me please do, im allways open to opinions on this subject.

Thanks


What is it?
GHB is pure evil! A terrible, deadly, coma-inducing, date rape drug created by the devil himself. Well, that’s if you believe the politically motivated, US-led media frenzy surrounding it. While serious problems can arise from using GHB, ill-informed public reactions often verge on the hysterical.

Mostly known in New Zealand as ‘G’ or ‘Rinse’, Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid is actually a naturally occuring nutrient, found in every cell of the human body. In other words, it is inherently non-toxic. Since its synthesis in 1960, numerous medical uses have been discovered for GHB, including the treatment of insomnia, depression, alcohol and drug withdrawal, as an anaesthetic, even to make childbirth easier. It continues to be used in medicine across Europe. But in 1990, apparently in response to its growing recreational use, the US Food and Drug Administration began a process that lead to it becoming illegal. Most other countries, including New Zealand followed suit. Many believe however that the FDA’s main motivation was not to shield the public from a ‘deadly new rave drug’ but to protect the US pharmaceutical industry from a cheap, safe, natural alternative to sleeping pills and other treatments. Whatever you believe, an important thing to remember about all drugs is that supervised medical use and random recreational use are totally different games – and using GHB for laughs is not without major risks.

Firstly, GHB has a steep dose/response curve. That means the difference between fun and fuck-up can be less than a teaspoon’s worth.
Secondly, it doesn’t mix well: The vast majority of illness and death associated with GHB involves it being taken with alcohol or other sedatives/downers.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, it’s virtually impossible to know the true strength of your G when you buy it. In other words, you must always be extremely careful when it comes to dosage.
We can't stress this last point enough, as many hundreds of young New Zealanders have ended up in A&E, with the Ministry of Health reporting three known deaths attributed to G or related substances.
It its pure form, GHB is a white powder that pretty much tastes like salt. Unfortunately, you’re unlikely to find it like this in New Zealand as GHB normally comes ready diluted in small bottles of clear, blue or green coloured water. We say unfortunately because barring the usual cut, powdered GHB is pretty straight forward to dose with. When it’s already diluted, you have no real way of knowing how much G is in the liquid until you’ve tried it.

All forms of GHB, GBL, 1,4B etc are class B drugs. That means under the law, it’s illegal to use, sell, make, or give to your mates. Because quality/concentration varies so widely, prices are all over the show, but can be as low as three bucks for a single dose or ‘hit’.

GBL and 1,4B
When GHB became illegal in the US, people started looking for similar chemicals not yet spotted by the feds. Gamma-butyrlactone (GBL) and 1,4-Butanediol (1,4B) are two such ‘analogues’ of GHB. Basically, once you neck these drugs, your body converts them to GHB. Despite this fact, both drugs are pretty damn different to real GHB. For one GBL and 1,4B are solvents. While GHB tastes like salty water, GBL and 1,4B taste like paint stripper (which they basically are). Another issue is that one ml of pure liquid GBL is twice as strong as one gram of pure GHB (1,4B is more like one to one). This dosage confusion alone has lead to a number of OD hospitalisations and death.
Because these solvents have legitimate commercial uses, dealers can get their hands on them more easily. This means that these days, your G is most likely to be watered down GBL. How much it’s been watered down is up to the individual dealer. One more thing – be careful handling these solvents. Wash thoroughly if you get any on your skin, and avoid spilling on clothing, furniture or plastics you don’t want completely eaten through.

Dosage
Depending on your weight and other factors like how much you've had to eat, a standard recreational dose of GHB is between 1 and 3 grams (diluted into however many mls of water). For pure GBL it’s between 0.5 and 1.5 mls, which may or may not be diluted. Just remember that as with all drugs, everyone has different tolerance levels: Your mate might be cool with a particular dose, you might not.
While the safest way to take either drug is to assume that they are at their purest (and therefore take a very small amount to start with), there are other simple dosage precautions: Measure out your ‘hits’ before you go out, and not in some pitch dark club toilet where the tiniest overpour could mess up your night. To do this most accurately, either use a cough medicine measuring cup, or buy a 1-3ml syringe from a needle exchange or selected chemist. You don’t need the actual needle, just draw the liquid through the open tip of the barrel. Please dispose of the ‘sharp’ carefully by either leaving it with the outlet you bought it from, or drop it in an old Coke can and fold the top over before binning. Oh yeah, and don’t go wandering around with a G soaked syringe in your pocket – if you’re busted, the cops might think you are a drug rapist (see further down the page).

Taking G
In theory, adding a dose of G to a full bottle of juice or Coke or water and sipping slowly over time is a safer, more controlled way to take the drug. In reality, it leads to more screw-ups. For one, drink bottles are hard to keep track of at the best of times, let alone when you’re wasted. Someone else can easily mistake it for an ordinary drink and suck it back when you’re not looking. If that person has already had their hit, or have been taking other drugs or alcohol, they could be in the shit. Also, if you are sharing between a few friends, it’s impossible to measure how much you’ve all taken – making an ambulance ride more likely. One more thing, GHB, GBL and 1,4 B are all heavier than water, so will sink to the bottom of the bottle. The last person to have a drink could end up with a much bigger dose than they planned on. So basically, flag the drink mixing option altogether, and go for the single, carefully measured hit. When you take the hit, try to remember how much you’ve taken, and at what time. It can be a pain to remember this stuff (try writing it on your hand), but it could be the difference between a good night out and a shite night out.

So how does it feel?
Depending on how long ago you ate that dodgy K Road kebab, all forms of G can kick in anywhere between 5 minutes and an hour, and can last between one and three hours. In lower doses, it feels a bit like a happy booze buzz. You’ll feel relaxed, chatty, touchy-feely, euphoric/buzzed up, maybe a wee bit strange but generally in a pretty good mood. If you take more, you’ll probably just want to sit down, and start to feel and act quite munted. Slurring and staggering about like Margaret (got a dollar?) is a definite sign you’ve had too much. Go any further, or take too much at once, and you could G out.

Embarrassment alert
In some ways, G is a little like Ketamine – take a very small amount and you will pretty much be able to handle yourself at a club. But just a tiny bit too much and you can end up making a fool of yourself. For one, G is a powerful muscle relaxant; take a large dose, and you could well end up losing control of a key bodily function. Result? You’ll be pissing yourself, and we don’t mean laughing. People G’ing out in public can lie around drooling, moaning, fiddling with themselves or just plain puking. They tend to get kicked out of clubs, annoy their friends and generally screw their rep. So even though G is still a popular club drug, our advice is the same as with K; take it at home or some other safe place where you’re less likely to mess up.

Problems
Taken strictly as per the dosage instructions it came with when it was legitimately available in health food shops, G is pretty safe. Now on the black market, with no indication of strength, let alone quality control, you can’t really tell how powerful a new batch of G is until you’ve taken it. All of a sudden, taking this stuff is ten times more dodge.
Aside from simply overdosing on plain G, there is another large risk with this drug – mixing with alcohol and other downers/sedatives. Now listen up; one of G's main effects on the body is that it’s a powerful respiratory depressant. That means larger and larger amounts will slow and even stop your breathing. Alcohol is also a respiratory depressant. That’s why we’re going hard-out Nazi and saying DO NOT drink booze and use G. Like, EVER. Even a small amount of piss will join forces with the G and put you in the danger zone. You think it won't happen to you, but we asked an ambulance crew what illegal drug they see in most ODs, and they told us G. The other thing is that, like booze, G can make you barf. Try to recycle that kebab when you’re unconscious, and you could choke and die. If a friend has taken G and seems keen on snoozage, don’t just give them their teddy bear! Try to wake them up by shaking them and shouting at them. If that fails, put them in the recovery position and call for help.
Although GHB is naturally occuring, long term or heavy use will unbalance your brain chemistry. Symptoms include anything from over-tiredness to auditory hallucinations to depression. However, major cutting back or stopping your G use altogether will quickly return things to normal.

Addiction
Although there hasn’t been a lot of research in this area, many reports say that heavy, long-term use of G leads to addiction. Some people experience sudden, severe agitation, anxiety, insomnia, chest pains, and the shakes after stopping regular use of G. These symptoms can be quite serious, and may last for anything from a few days to a few weeks.

Mixing
As we’ve said elsewhere, you should not take G with booze or other downers like benzos, Ketamine, nitrous, etc. Less is known about the risks of mixing with uppers, although you should be careful if you start taking G on its own if you’ve previously only had it at the same time as uppers like speed or ecstasy. Why? Because the stimulant effect of the uppers counteracts the down effect of the G, so you may have been taking more G than you would need if you had it on its own. Geddit? If you took that same amount of G with no other drugs, you could OD. Basically, your best bet when taking G is to stick with it, and nothing else.
Sex
We’re not going to be very popular with the olds for mentioning this, but one of G’s original claims to fame was that it can make sex better. According to Dr Laborit, the French researcher who discovered G, it can make people less inhibited, make them more touchy-feely, cause ‘tent poles’ and other, er, signs of arousal (for both sexes). Whatever you get up to with your boyfriend orgirlfriend, make sure you stick to the normal safe sex precautions. And remember; G's effects are highly sensitive to small differences in dosage – take the tiniest amount too much and you really will be 'sleeping together'.

Drug rape
You’ve probably heard of G being used in ‘drug assisted sexual assaults’. This criminal fuckwit behaviour is for real. Because GHB is often colourless, odourless, and only tastes a little salty, it can easily be added to your drink without you knowing (the taste of GBL and 1,4B is more noticeable, but still a possibility due to the tiny amounts required). Because the effects can be similar to drinking large amounts of piss (including memory loss), you might not even realise you’ve been drugged. The simple, foolproof rules for any social situation are to keep an eye on your drink at all times, and stick with your mates no matter what.

Tips for using more safely
If you are new to G, or just want to be a bit sensible, check out these main points. These are just the basics though; if you skipped straight to this section, you should go back and fully read the whole article.

• If you are a first-timer, take half the amount others are taking. Make sure your first experience is with people you know and trust, and do it in a safe place (ie; not down some dark alley off K Road).
• Don’t take this stuff on your own. When you and your mates stick together, it’s much easier to keep an eye on each other.
• If you meet up with friends after a hit, tell them what you’ve taken. If you G out, they will know to get help more quickly.
• There's no way to know the strength of a newly bought G. For that reason, don’t buy off random dudes in clubs.
• If you are a woman, or have a small build you should always use less than your bigger friends.
• Always measure and dose yourself on the conservative side. If it’s a new batch, treat it as if it's pure, at least until you’ve sussed out its strength.
• Hang back AT LEAST an hour before deciding whether it’s working. Two hits in a short space of time is precisely how people end up at A&E with a tube down their neck.
• Under NO circumstances should you drink booze while taking G.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	great info
	Brilliant work, information, harm reduction - everything! Great job.

[Richard_smoker]

Really REALLY great post. thanks for the info. I was really curious about almost everything you just posted. I do have one question for you, however. you said,

"It its pure form, GHB is a white powder that pretty much tastes like salt. Unfortunately, you’re unlikely to find it like this in New Zealand as GHB normally comes ready diluted in small bottles of clear, blue or green coloured water. We say unfortunately because barring the usual cut, powdered GHB is pretty straight forward to dose with. When it’s already diluted, you have no real way of knowing how much G is in the liquid until you’ve tried it."

If my memory serves me correctly, back in the days when you could just order a kit with GBL and NaOH pre-measured, you could just mix the 2 bottle together, watch a bunch of heat and bubbles get created, and THEN (I *think*) that instead of watering it down to fill up a 750ml bottle, you could pour this GHB liquid out onto a drying pan and allow the water from the reaction itself to dry out, leaving you with real, dry, crystalized, pure ghb powder.
--actually the wateris left-over from beingconvertedout ofthe lactone.
Is this correct?? I'm almost 100% sure that I did this once. it's been SO long ago since the days of "Ggggggzzzzzz" kits, and I bought so many of them that I can't remember for certain.
Does anyone remember or know of someone doing it this way?? I guess i'm thinking that it's more convenient to just pop a capsule than measure out a liquid.
-shem

[mbu37]

Years ago, the only SWIM produced dried GHB was by using Methenol in the reaction and then drying that at a very low heat in an oven with the door opened. Worked very well as SWIM recalls.

[Richard_smoker]

Oh yeah, one more thing...


If there are other people out there who hate to tote around liquids and measure them out...


there's the BEST product that I bought from Smoothie King or one of those wanna-be health-food stores.


It's a liquid B-vitamin that's actually held in a double-chambered plastic bottle. I'm sure most people have seen these things at one point or another--they use the exact same bottle to hold outboard motor oil (the kind you've got to measure and then mix into the gasoline), and I've also seen them sold as shots of expresso-dispenser.


But anyway, dump out the B-vitamin crap, and you've got yourself a GREAT container for storing and dispensing liquids for consumption. All you do is fill up the the main storage section of the bottle (I think it holds 750ml--a full kit of GHB), and then you take off the cap covering the little 'shot glass' and squeeze the bottle and it's marked "1 ml, 2ml, ... 5ml"-- in other words, it's PERFECT. just like carrying around a syringe to measure, and you never spill a drop! AND, there's one more really AMAZING thing about this method... you can't get caught!!!


LEAVE THE BULLSHIT B-VITAMIN LABEL ON THE BOTTLE!!


I can't tell you how many times I've pulled out my vitamins in front of policemen, teachers, my grandparents, etc. as I explain how everyone needs to take their B vitamins regularly!





-SHEMMY

[Richard_smoker]

oh yeah, forgot to say 1 thing about the liquid vitamin device.


The label must be stuck on with superglue or something because I've been using this thing for over 2 years and the label is barely even starting to peel or fade!

[Nagognog2]

Don't "dry" solvents like methanol using an oven. The fumes could ignite and cause a nasty fire! Aside from that - methanol is extremely poisonous in all states - gas, liquid, and vapor condensate. It can soak through your skin, lungs, and stomach.

Try an open bowl out in the sunshine if you don't have proper chemical apparatus. Wear gloves. Don't inhale the fumes. And be patient. Bongo was accidently exposed to methanol fumes once when a fume-hood died on him. It was not a large amount, but he felt like every bone in his body - even ones he never knew existed - were being twisted around inside him and tied into knots. Don't go there.

[MrG]

I wish people would stop references the supposed need for methanol to make powder GHB, it is so untrue.

See below. Please. No really. Stop twatting about with your methanol fixation.

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26198