1,4-Butanediol Stats - Substance Search

Interaction Warnings

⚠ dissociatives

This combination can result in an increased risk of vomiting during unconsciousness and death from the resulting suffocation. If this occurs, users should attempt to fall asleep in the recovery position or have a friend move them into it.

⚠ stimulants

It is dangerous to combine 1,4-Butanediol, a depressant, with stimulants due to the risk of excessive intoxication. Stimulants decrease the sedative effect of 1,4-Butanediol, which is the main factor most people consider when determining their level of intoxication. Once the stimulant wears off, the effects of GHB will be significantly increased, leading to intensified disinhibition as well as other effects.

Pharmacology

DrugBank

State Solid

Receptor Profile

Receptor Actions

Agonists

Gamma-hydroxybutyrate receptor agonist

GABA-B receptor agonist

Other

Prodrug (metabolizes to GHB via alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase)

History & Culture

1890–present

1,4-Butanediol was first synthesized in 1890 by Dutch chemist Pieter Johannes Dekkers through the acidic hydrolysis of N,N'-dinitro-1,4-butanediamine. Dekkers originally named the compound "tetramethylene glycol," a reference to its structure as a four-carbon diol.

1,4-Butanediol has gained recognition as a recreational substance due to its metabolic conversion to gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) following oral ingestion. Within recreational drug communities, the substance is known by various street names including "Bute," "One Comma Four," "Liquid Fantasy," "One Four Bee," and "One Four B-D-O."

Subjective Effects

Physical

The physical effects of 1,4-butanediol can be broken down into several components which progressively intensify proportional to dosage.

Stimulation and Sedation: At lower doses, 1,4-butanediol is physically stimulating, encouraging movement and wakefulness. At higher doses, however, it becomes physically sedating, encouraging sleep and lethargy.
Euphoria
Nausea
Motor control loss
Dizziness
Dehydration
Respiratory depression: Many reportedly experience an abnormal pattern of breathing characterized by progressively deeper and sometimes faster breathing followed by a gradual decrease that results in a temporary stop in breathing called an apnea.

Cognitive

The cognitive effects of 1,4-butanediol can be broken down into several components which progressively intensify proportional to dosage. It contains a large number of typical depressant cognitive effects.

Empathy, love and sociability enhancement: Unlike alcohol which merely increases sociability through disinhibition, 1,4-butanediol presents strong entactogenic effects which, although weaker than that of MDMA, are still prominent and well-defined.
Disinhibition
Information processing suppression
Thought deceleration
Amnesia
Euphoria
Anxiety suppression

Forked from Subjective Effect Documentation by Josie Kins, September 2015. Via dose.wiki (CC0).

Toxicity

PsychonautWiki

]] 1,4-Butanediol is not active in its own right; its mechanism of action stems from its identity as a prodrug of GHB, meaning that it is rapidly converted into GHB in the body. GHB is considered to be a safe and non-toxic substance when used responsibly or medically. The LD50 is above the active dosage, and there is no danger of acute toxicity when this compound is taken at appropriate dosages. However, it can be dangerous when used as a recreational drug or abused. There have been many negative reports from recreational users who have overdosed, combined GHB with alcohol or other drugs, or accidentally dosed themselves unexpectedly.

Organ-specific toxicity

In multiple studies, GHB has been found to impair spatial memory, working memory, learning and memory in rats with chronic administration. These effects are associated with decreased NMDA receptor expression in the cerebral cortex and possibly other areas as well. One study found that repeated administration of GHB to rats for 15 days drastically reduced the number of neurons and non-neuronal cells within the hippocampus and in the prefrontal cortex.

Tolerance & Pharmacokinetics

drugs.wiki

No tolerance chart. Our decay curves for these drugs were estimates, and a curve can make tolerance look longer-lasting than it is, which is the dangerous direction.

How fast tolerance to these drugs fades after a break has not been measured well enough to draw, so don't count on a dose you used to take still being safe: after time off, start with a much smaller amount and don't use alone. Mixing sedatives with each other, with alcohol or with opioids sharply raises the risk of a fatal overdose. If you've been using regularly, don't stop suddenly: withdrawal from benzodiazepines, alcohol or GHB/GBL can cause seizures or delirium, so get medical help to cut down gradually. With GHB and GBL, tolerance drops after you stop, so the amount you used to take can cause an overdose, and the gap between the dose you want and an overdose is small and hard to judge.

Sources: FRANK: benzodiazepines · Alcohol and Drug Foundation: GHB · FDA 2020: benzodiazepine boxed warning · FDA 2019: gabapentinoids and breathing · NHS: alcohol use disorder · FRANK: GHB

Experience Report Analysis

Erowid

59 Reports

44 Single-substance

1998–2023 Date Range

16 With Age Data

14 Effects Detected

Demographics

Gender Distribution

Age Distribution

Reports Over Time

Effect Analysis

Erowid

Effects aggregated from 44 experience reports (44 single-substance Erowid)

44 Reports

14 Effects Detected

6 Positive

7 Adverse

1 Neutral

Effect Sentiment Distribution

Confidence Distribution

Each bar is the share of reports mentioning the effect; its whisker, and the band on the rows below, is the 95% interval: where the share could plausibly be with other reports of the same kind.

Positive Effects 6

Stimulation 22.7% 70%

Euphoria 22.7% 70%

Empathy 13.6% 70%

Sedation 11.4% 70%

Tactile Enhancement 9.1% 70%

Music Enhancement 6.8% 70%

Adverse Effects 7

Anxiety 22.7% 70%

Nausea 22.7% 70%

Confusion 22.7% 70%

Sweating 13.6% 70%

⚠ Seizure 9.1% 70%

Increased Heart Rate 9.1% 70%

Memory Suppression 6.8% 70%

Show 1 neutral or unclassified mention

Hospital 34.1%

Also reported in combinations. In the 15 1,4-Butanediol reports where another drug was taken too, 5 mention hospital, emergency services or an overdose, 2 a seizure and 0 psychosis (too few reports for percentages). In the 44 single-substance reports: 34.1%, 9.1% and 0.0%. These are not in the figures above: they cannot be put down to 1,4-Butanediol alone, and a mention is not always something that happened to the writer.

Dosage Distribution

Dose distribution from experience reports, one dose per report (the first listed). Doses above Q3 + 3×IQR, far above what people typically take, are left out of the median and range and listed under each route: most are real heavy doses or overdoses, not mistakes.

Median: 2.8 ml IQR: 2.2–5.2 ml n=24

Form / Preparation

Most common forms and preparations, as a share of the 44 reports that give one; whiskers are 95% intervals

Redose Patterns

Redosing behavior across 53 reports

13.2% Redosed

1.3 Avg Doses

120m Median Interval

Legal Status

Country	Status	Notes
Canada	Schedule VI precursor	Controlled as a Schedule VI precursor under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. This classification applies to precursor chemicals rather than substances controlled for direct psychoactive effects.
Germany	Not explicitly scheduled	The substance is not explicitly listed as illegal under German drug legislation. However, it may be treated as illegal if possessed or sold for use as a drug rather than for legitimate industrial purposes.
United Kingdom	Class C	Scheduled in December 2009 as a Class C controlled substance alongside gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), another GHB precursor. Controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
United States	Not federally scheduled (Federal Analog Act may apply)	While 1,4-butanediol is not currently scheduled at the federal level, several states have classified it as a controlled substance. Individuals have been prosecuted for possession under the Federal Analog Act as substantially similar to GHB. Court rulings have been inconsistent: a 2002 federal case in New York ruled it could not be considered a GHB analog, but this decision was later overturned by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

References

Data Sources

Wikipedia

1,4-Butanediol Stats & Data