[Erowid Note: The dose described in this report is very high, potentially beyond Erowid's 'heavy' range, and could pose serious health risks or result in unwanted, extreme effects.
GHB
Well-documented
Well-documented
Multiple authoritative sources agree on dosing and effects.
- 4 corroborating sources
- 1 ROA with full dose ladder
- duration data present
- 29 combo interactions documented
- toxicity data (PsychonautWiki, PubChem)
Well-documented
Multiple authoritative sources agree on dosing and effects.
- 4 corroborating sources
- 1 ROA with full dose ladder
- duration data present
- 29 combo interactions documented
- toxicity data (PsychonautWiki, PubChem)
Aliases: alcover, fantasy, g, gina, liquid x, sodium oxybate, xyrem
Summary
gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (also known as and 4-hydroxybutanoic acid and GHB) is a depressant substance. It is found naturally as a neurotransmitter and is also a precursor to GABA, glutamate, and glycine in certain brain areas. It acts on the GHB receptor and is a weak agonist at the GABAB receptor.
Dose Information
| ROA | Light | Common | Strong | Heavy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral BA ~25-30% | 0.5-1.5g | 1-2.5g | 2-3.5g | 3.5-5g+ |
Light
Common
Strong
Heavy
⚠ 5–10 g oral
Convulsions, unconsciousness, vomiting
☠ above 10 g oral
Risk of death
“While a common recreational dose is 2g, a dose of 5g - 10g can result in convulsions, unconsciousness and vomiting.” — PsychonautWiki
“Doses above 10 grams are associated with a risk of death.” — PsychonautWiki
Onset, Duration & After-effects
| ROA | Onset | Comeup | Peak | Offset | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral | 4-30 min | 10-19 min | 45-90 min | 15-30 min | 1.5-2.5 hrs |
Tolerance
Build-up
develops rapidly within days of regular around-the-clock dosing
Reset
Falls after you stop, at a rate that varies from person to person. If you've been using regularly, cut down gradually with medical help rather than stopping suddenly.
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
Effects
Aggregated from 105 single-substance Erowid and 21 Bluelight experience reports; 88 Erowid reports where another drug was taken too are left out
Each bar shows the share of analyzed reports whose text mentions that effect — a mention is not always a first-hand experience (fear of an effect or something witnessed can count). Mentions saying the effect did not happen are left out; that check reads keywords, so it can miss some. The shaded band on a bar, and the small range after its number, is the 95% interval: where the share could plausibly be with other reports of the same kind. Fewer reports, wider band. Tap or hover any number for details. The second value is the Bluelight extractor's per-effect confidence; a dash means the row is Erowid-derived, which has no confidence measurement.
Effect glossary — · full glossary
Positive Effects 33
52.4% (95% interval 32 to 72 percent)
87%
38.9% (95% interval 31 to 48 percent)
88%
34.9% (95% interval 27 to 44 percent)
75%
33.3% (95% interval 17 to 55 percent)
86%
23.8% (95% interval 11 to 45 percent)
83%
23.8% (95% interval 11 to 45 percent)
84%
20.6% (95% interval 14 to 28 percent)
83%
19.8% (95% interval 14 to 28 percent)
87%
19.0% (95% interval 8 to 40 percent)
81%
19.0% (95% interval 8 to 40 percent)
85%
16.2% (95% interval 10 to 24 percent)
–
14.3% (95% interval 5 to 35 percent)
85%
9.5% (95% interval 6 to 16 percent)
85%
9.5% (95% interval 3 to 29 percent)
85%
9.5% (95% interval 3 to 29 percent)
92%
9.5% (95% interval 3 to 29 percent)
80%
9.5% (95% interval 3 to 29 percent)
88%
8.8% (95% interval 5 to 15 percent)
89%
6.4% (95% interval 3 to 12 percent)
90%
5.5% (95% interval 3 to 11 percent)
85%
Show 13 more positive effects
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
70%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
80%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
90%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
80%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
90%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
90%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
90%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
85%
4.8% (95% interval 2 to 10 percent)
85%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
80%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
90%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
85%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
90%
Adverse Effects 39
32.6% (95% interval 25 to 41 percent)
85%
23.8% (95% interval 11 to 45 percent)
88%
23.0% (95% interval 16 to 31 percent)
86%
19.0% (95% interval 8 to 40 percent)
89%
19.0% (95% interval 8 to 40 percent)
75%
19.0% (95% interval 8 to 40 percent)
76%
19.0% (95% interval 8 to 40 percent)
89%
15.0% (95% interval 10 to 22 percent)
84%
12.7% (95% interval 8 to 20 percent)
83%
9.5% (95% interval 3 to 29 percent)
92%
9.5% (95% interval 3 to 29 percent)
75%
9.5% (95% interval 3 to 29 percent)
80%
9.5% (95% interval 3 to 29 percent)
80%
8.8% (95% interval 5 to 15 percent)
78%
8.6% (95% interval 5 to 16 percent)
–
4.8% (95% interval 2 to 10 percent)
83%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
90%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
85%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
90%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
90%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
85%
2.9% (95% interval 1 to 8 percent)
–
Show 17 more adverse effects
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
80%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
75%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
90%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
85%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
80%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
90%
Cognitive Change
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
75%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
85%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
75%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
75%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
75%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
85%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
85%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
80%
4.8% (95% interval 1 to 23 percent)
70%
4.8% (95% interval 2 to 11 percent)
–
3.8% (95% interval 2 to 9 percent)
–
Also reported in combinations. In the 88 GHB reports where another drug was taken too, 27 (30.7%) mention hospital, emergency services or an overdose, 8 (9.1%) a seizure and 3 (3.4%) psychosis. In the 105 single-substance reports: 33.3%, 2.9% and 1.9%. These are not in the figures above: they cannot be put down to GHB alone, and a mention is not always something that happened to the writer.
Combinations
Cross-Check GHB with another substanceCommunity Trip Reports
Anecdotal first-person accounts from Reddit, Erowid, Bluelight, and Dose.wiki. Click a source to expand. Reports are harm-reduction context, not medical guidance. Tags summarise each author's own verdict — how reports are classified.
Erowid 8 reports 2 positive 6 cautionary visit
I'm 19 years old. I've allways been made fun of for being skinny. I've smoked pot, taking ecstasy, cokecain, whatever it took to get me high. Of course it damaged my brain and from 16-18 I was allways depressed, acted stupid, hated life, took more drugs to mask the pain or bordom.
In the last few years we have had the unfortunate luck to personally witness 10 or so GHB-overdoses of various severities and have read or been told about dozens more. First, I want to make it clear that we are not anti-GHB.
It makes me nauseous thinking of what I am about to recount. I must do it, not only for my own sanity and healing, but for the sake of all ye who may tangle with the GHBeast. What you are about to read is all true, and not for the faint of heart.
I never tried GHB until recently when i was given the opportunity to. Below is my escalating trials with this peculiar molecule. Venturing in a completely unknown territoty, i decided to start low and work up until finding my G spot (despite my being a male ;).
This story is to serve as an example of what NOT to do, especially with such a sensitive drug as GHB. Things could have easily turned out very badly. We were lucky, but I think it shows that a little humility is needed when dealing with drugs.
I took GHB in the form of Xyrem for 4 years for narcolepsy. I had been diagnosed with narcolepsy 6 years before beginning the Xyrem. At first, I thought GHB was a miracle drug. It helped with my daytime sleepiness and my other narcolepsy symptoms reduced. I started at a dose of 2.5 grams twice a night.
Several days after my first GHB experience (and second, and third), I told a friend about it, and he immediately decided he'd like to try some. I'd figured out the dosage for NaGHB powder through personal experimentation, and thought I now knew all there was to know...
Bluelight 5 threads 1 positive 3 neutral 1 cautionary visit
Throughout the years I have experimented. From marijuana to methamphetamine , I have tried almost every substance popularly sold on the street. Many of them I wish to do again. Many of them I regret. But only a few have changed my life. Alcohol was a fun drug.
After my second tangle with GHB put me in an unwakeable coma for four plus hours I decided to never do it again well never say never I guess. Started out by buying 2.7 liquid ounces of GHB solution unknown concentration this was at around noon.
I guess GHB magnifies emotions . One night in the middle of a month long binge , I thought I heard some people down the road talking about me. I am usually pretty contained but I just lost it and went running down the road at 03.00 am in my underpants , shaking gates and banging on doors.
I just read the warning thread directed at GHB, in TR, so I felt compelled to offer a differing view, as I recently did quite a lot of experimentation with GHB. Some 20g or so of Na-GHB made itself available to me, as pure, slightly hygroscopic crystalline powder, so, me being me, I got to "work", testing it out.
Ill start off by saying I disrespected the power of this drug in turn it taught me a valuable lesson measure your dosage. It was 1:00p.m. I purchase some fluid GHB for 20 dollars from a very legitimate source he warns me to be careful his girl ended up in the hospital off of 2 cap fulls I nod and act concerned thinking...
Bluelight Reference Guide
GHB / 1,4-B / GBL Discussion and Use
Bluelight’s primary GHB / 1,4-B / GBL discussion thread. Covers dosing, the recovery position, overdose response, addiction / withdrawal (which can be life-threatening), and benzo / alcohol combination risks.
Read full thread on Bluelight →Pill Identifiers
1
known pill identifiers on record — view imprints, colors, shapes, and images
→
GHB's nerd page
Pharmacology, chemical data, effect profiles, and more
→
Helpful Links
Import into PsychonautWiki Journal
The PsychonautWiki Journal app includes GHB, but its built-in data can be thinner than ours. Importing this file adds a separate "GHB (Substance Search)" custom substance with our dose ranges and durations, so you can log against whichever you prefer. It leaves tolerance out on purpose, for the reason given under Tolerance above.
⬇ Download import file
Import this file as custom substances
and you get "GHB (Substance Search)" with every
route's full dose ladder and timeline, no typing. Works on iOS and
Android (v15+); the format is confirmed by the app's
developer.
Ranges are harm-reduction guidance, not a prescription.
Report an issue or suggest an edit
Spotted incorrect or dangerous information, have a correction, a new study, or a useful addition for GHB? Let us know. Reports are reviewed by moderators — this is not posted publicly.