What is GHB?

"An emerging drug of abuse that causes dependence"      -Gantt P. Galloway, PharmD, Haight-Ashbury free clinics, San Francisco

Fine, but then we must wonder what Mortimer Mamelak, M.D., University of Toronto, meant by:

"a remarkably safe and nontoxic hypnotic agent which is reported to be free of addicting properties."
Not to mention the discrepancy between Ward Dean, M.D. and his

"extraordinarily safe substance with a wide variety of valuable uses"
and Trinka Porrata, narcotics detective, LAPD, with whose GHB

"Onetime, single-dose use can kill you. . . there's no predictability to it."
     It was into this labyrinth of propaganda, confusion, conspiracy, and arcane medical research I was dropped when a passing mention in a newspaper account lead me to search out research and learnéd opinions on GHB. At first, even the sides were unclear: Desperately self-justifying druggie burnouts against the wisdom of the medical community? Paranoid, uneducated cops against brave but persecuted scientists? Ravers against Nazis? Several months and 150 articles later, I staggered out of the library and into the light. This is what I found.

Enter the GHB Frequently Asked Question site


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