Ireland - Legality of GBL in Ireland

[vinylmesh]

Swim cannot find this info anywhere. Swim was under the impression it was copmpletely illegal, but checked again and there might be a chance it's only controlled when sold as a medicine;

http://193.178.1.79/2003/en/si/0540.html

http://193.178.1.79/1999/en/si/0271.html

What made swim check again is that he read a "drugs website" (probably operated by some public health group) that seemed to imply ghb wasn't illegal in ireland;

http://www.drugs.ie/types_of_drugs/sedatives/ghb/

. Anyone care to shed some light on this issue?

[nibble]

The first and second documents would seem to indicate it falls under the category of a "prescription medicine" when sold as a medicine. But given that GBL is quite an important industrial solvent I don't think there would be any issue of its sale when sold as such, it would only become an issue if the GBL was sold as a medicinal product which may include any form of consumption. But even being a prescription medicine does not neccesarily mean that it's controlled, I'm quite sure that the only way a drug can be considered "controlled" here is if it is specifically added to a schedule as laid down by the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 1988, which I don't believe GBL or GHB have ever been added to.

Even if it were to be sold as a medicinal product it would probably be in a situation similar to the opioid tramadol, the drug is not part of a schedule in the misuse of drug regulations but it would still be considered "prescription only". If found in posession of such a product without a valid prescription I'm not sure what the penalties would be, but I imagine it wouldn't be considered a serious criminal offence in the same way posession of a controlled substance would be.

Sorry I couldn't give you any hard facts to its exact status but I believe one would be completely within his rights to be in possesion of it at this time.

[De Stijl]

"I'm quite sure that the only way a drug can be considered "controlled" here is if it is specifically added to a schedule as laid down by the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 1988, which I don't believe GBL or GHB have ever been added to."

Whoa! look closer, 4-hydroxybutanoic (AKA 4-hydroxybutyric) acid, its salts and esters, are on the Irish MoD legislation, added 1993. GHB is definitely illegal in Ireland.

I can find no reference to the lactone though, not in the MoD stuff.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Thank you for the contribution

[nibble]

Originally Posted by De Stijl

"I'm quite sure that the only way a drug can be considered "controlled" here is if it is specifically added to a schedule as laid down by the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 1988, which I don't believe GBL or GHB have ever been added to."

Whoa! look closer, 4-hydroxybutanoic (AKA 4-hydroxybutyric) acid, its salts and esters, are on the Irish MoD legislation, added 1993. GHB is definitely illegal in Ireland.

I can find no reference to the lactone though, not in the MoD stuff.

Ah right thanks!

[Birkill]

Im not sure if its the same in ireland but the uk laws surrounding ghb and gbl are that ghb is a class c drug and was classified in the last fewish years that due to 2 date rape cases out of over a thousend involved ghb(0.2%!) alcohol being the main culprit in nearly 500 of these(48%). GBL is still unclassified but is being looked at by the people that say what is aceptable for a person to do without being classed as a criminal! Rumours have it that gbl and maybe even sum of its close chemical cousins like 14 butaminal(?) will be illlegal by the end of the year! Mind they got it bad in the us as GHB is a schedal 1 drug and gbl a no 3, i think!

[De Stijl]

Birkill please don't clutter threads with irrelevant rambling....the question was answered GHB has already been a controlled drug in Ireland since 1993 (Schedule 3). GBL is not a controlled drug.

vinylmesh perhaps you should email the people responsible for that site and make them aware of their mistake.