[Main Page][GHB FAQ][Meta-FAQ][Supply FAQ][Therapy FAQ] [References][Glossary][Link To the Outside World]
[Quick answers from the GHB FAQ Crisis Center]


What is GHB commonly called?




1. Liquid X / Liquid Ecstasy* - Probably the most common street name, this evidently comes from raves and clubs in which GHB is prized for its disinhibiting* effects. While some may find it similar to MDMA* [68], the two drugs are chemically and neurologically completely different.
 
2. Cherry meth, scoop, Georgia Home Boy, soap, GBH, Grievous Bodily Harm - "Soap" is probably a reference to the taste of GHB. The latter two are evidently the product of a heretofore unobserved dyslexic prohibitionist subculture.
 
3. Gamma-OH, Sodium Oxybate, gamma-hydrate, Somatomax PM - Brand names from various pharmaceutical companies. Gamma-OH is used by Laboratorie Egic of France, which sells it commercially in a banana-flavored syrup. Sodium Oxybate is produced by Biocraft Labs and Sigma for relief of narcolepsy* and other sleep disorders (the only use approved in the US, and that on only a limited research basis) [51].
 
4. Nature's Quaalude* - Apparently confined to the weightlifting culture of the early 1990's [69]. Neither the biological nor the experiential effects of GHB are particularly similar to quaaludes ("downers").
 
5. easy lay - If someone refers to GHB by this name, it's time to leave, or perhaps to engage your ultimate kickboxing skills. This "date-rape" reputation doesn't need to travel any further.
 
6. Great Hormones at Bedtime - I somehow doubt the national prevalence of this gem from Anya Shortridge's Anti-GHB FAQ, but you have to love it anyway...
 
7. Gamma-hydroxybutyrate, sodium gamma-hydroxybutyrate, sodium-4-hydroxybutyrate, 4-hydroxybutyric acid - technical names. Aside from the first, you're unlikely to see any of these outside of a chemical or pharmaceutical catalog.
 
8. Exothermic* reaction kit - To circumvent laws that forbid the sale of GHB for human consumption within the US, internet outfits almost uniformly offer the chemicals needed to easily synthesize GHB as teaching tools, the premise being that there is a vast market willing to pay $50-200 for the privilege of watching a reaction that is visually indistinguishable from baking soda in vinegar. Brand names include Power On/Power Off and Whi-zzzzz, or in some less paranoid cases "GHB exothermic reaction kit."
Next Segment: What About Hillory Farias?

Table of Contents
 

[Main Page][GHB FAQ][Meta-FAQ][Supply FAQ][Therapy FAQ]
[References][Glossary][Link To the Outside World]
[Quick answers from the GHB FAQ Crisis Center]


Created and maintained by Michael Cohn - michaelc@medscape.com  © 1998