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Why am I here?
What, another GHB FAQ?
Why did you write this?
No, I mean how DARE you write this?
Yo, do I look like a brain surgeon to you?
What's with the bracketty numbers and starry words?
What's a Laborit?
Didn't you forget. . .
Why am I here?
To learn, presumably. To discover the truth about the currently illegal drug GHB and its many guises. To find out whether alcoholics being helped through withdrawal, narcoleptics getting to bed, accident victims suffering from anoxia, and responsible adults everywhere who would like a recreational drug less toxic, long-lived, and prone to abuse than alcohol are secretly dropping like flies, or if there is something the War on Drugs is hiding about the Enemy. I hear there might also be some big fun later. We'll see.
What, another GHB FAQ?
Oh, I know what a wealth of GHB information is available in our world. But other sources I have seen are poorly organized, or focus exclusively on either the medical or the social pole. All had some tendency towards authoritarian proclamation. As this site expands, I hope to create a comprehensive picture of GHB's effects, phenomenological and objective, always upholding the strict insistence on peer-reviewed evidence that initiated my own quest.
Why did you write this?
Why write any FAQ, or anything for that matter? Why speak? Why think? There are many people asking questions, many more who should be asking questions, and much information to be presented. Next you'll be asking me why Liao, musician for the third course, left for Ts'ai.
No, I mean how dare you write this?
Ah, I see you are slightly upset. Please take a moment to relax. We all walk around holding too much tension, and it wreaks havoc on our muscles and psyches over weeks and years. Let some of that anger go.
Thanks. Now, your objection. Yes, I am writing about a somewhat "fringe" drug that is illegal in some states and nations. Yes, I am even offering information that someone might use to commit a criminal act. Is this by itself a moral wrong? I beg you to read the GHB FAQ, which discusses some of my findings, before passing judgment. My hope is to cut through the rumor, paranoia, and propaganda surrounding this small slice of a huge, volatile social issue and help humanity's decision makers (this means you) return to the clear-headed, sober minds they will need to choose a path for themselves. Would you have us make our way in blindness?
As I asked, please read the GHB GHB FAQ. If you still feel me wrong, then by all means tell me so. Shout it from the rooftops! As my mother always taught me, the best remedy for negative uses of free speech is more speech.
Yo, do I look like a brain surgeon to you?
Not especially.
I have no reason to assume you know what Cheynes-Stokes* respiration is, or how to intubate* a trachea*. But I also do not want to condescend to those who do understand enuresis*, or what MDMA* does. Thus, I have chosen to be very sparse with definitions in my FAQs, but build a comprehensive glossary. When reading the FAQs, you will come upon many terms that look like the above. Simply click on the tiny asterisk and the glossary window at the bottom of the page will deliver up the appropriate definition. You can also click in that window and browse about, or perform a search manually.
What's with the bracketty numbers and starry words everywhere?
Starred words are glossary entries, as explained above. Bracketed numbers are references to the scores of medical and scientific articles, as well as a few popular pieces, that have informed my study of GHB. When you come across one of these creatures in the FAQ, click on in and the window at the bottom of the page will deliver up the information, without losing your place.
What's a Laborit?
My website is named "Laborit" after the biologist Henri-Marie Laborit, who I have christened the Albert Hoffmann of GHB. He synthesized this compound in 1960 as a possible precursor to the neurotransmitter GABA, and was taken by surprise by its effects. In the decades that followed, he publicly championined its use as a safe tranquilizer, anaesthetic, anti-aging medicine and recreational drug. Laborit continued to work, publish, and use GHB thrice a week until his death in 1995 at the age of 81.
It is telling that Laborit considered GHB one of his two greatest accomplishments, considering that the other was the therapeutic use of chlorpromazine (Thorazine). He pioneered its use as a preoperative anaesthetic, greatly reducing deaths from surgical shock. He also made the initial suggestion that it be used on mental patients, which led directly to its recognition as the first drug capable of ameliorating schizophrenia and similar disorders. Thorazine and related compounds are known collectively as antipsychotic drugs, and are used to this day in psychotherapy. For this work, Laborit was awarded the 1957 Albert Lasker Research Award (the "American Nobel") [151] and [156]
Hey, didn't you forget. . .
Almost assuredly. Kind visitor, I pray that you will forgive my titanic foolishness and take a moment to inform me of that which I have clumsily neglected. This feedback link awaits your ministrations, so it can carry to me the tale of my evils.
Now,
Onward!
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