What is GHB? Is it illegal?

Gamma hydroxy butyrate ("GHB") is a central nervous system depressant that can relax, or at higher doses, sedate the body while slowing breathing and heart rate to dangerous levels.

GHB is usually a street manufactured drug, commonly found at night clubs, underground RAVE parties, and used by body builders for its purported anabolic effects.

GHB, while not a controlled substance, is not approved for medical use in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued advisories in 1990 and 1997 declaring GHB unsafe and illicit, except for use under FDA-approved physician supervised protocols.

How Do I Identify GHB?

GHB can be produced in clear liquid, white powder, tablet, and capsule forms, and it is often used in combination with alcohol, making it even more dangerous. GHB is most commonly found in liquid for in small bottles or vials. Plastic sports bottles of "spring water" and small "Visine" eye-drop containers are most often associated with its use. In liquid form, GHB can sometimes take on a lightly salty flavor.

GHB is used predominantly by adolecents and young adults, often when they attend night clubs and raves.

Street names for GHB include: Gamma-OH, Grievous Bodily Harm, Geordia Home Boy, Goop, Liquid Ecstacy, and Liquid X. (American Prosecutors Research Institude Violence Against Women Program (1999). The Prosecution of Rohypnol and GHB Related Sexual Assaults.)

What are the effects of GHB?

GHB is often used "recreationally" for its abililty to produce intoxication and euphoric effects.

Other effects include: loss of consciousness, memory impairment, confusion, loss of inhibition, seizures, dizziness, extreme drowsiness, stupor, agitation, nausea, visual disturbances, severe respiratory depression , reduced heart rate and blood pressure, coma, and death.

The effects of GHB occur within 10-30 minutes of ingestion and last 3-6 hours, depending on the dosage.