GHB The Natural Mood Enhancer

This 185 page paperback book on the history and conflict involving GHB is printed and published along the format lines of many of the books available in the racks at larger health food stores. While the narrative is sometimes a bit pedantic and slightly dry, it contains a wealth of well reasoned perspective. This excellent book also contains a wealth of graphs and charts to illustrate such scientific points concerning GHB as its metabolic half-life, its effects upon narcolepsy at various dosage ranges, and effects during addiction withdrawl symptoms.

The authors provide a very detailed, if often repetitious narrative of the history of clinical research on GHB in Europe and North America. There is an even more detailed history of the war of words and power moves used by the FDA and DEA in their covert activities to rid the USA of a safe and inexpensive adjunct to health and pleasure.

Fully half the book is devoted to detailing the press releases, the sensationalistic pseudo journalism, and disingenuous rhetoric engaged in by our federal overseers and protectors of the common good.

While the authors are honest in presenting evidence for the shadow side of this compound, they rightly conclude that in comparison to many of the compounds commonly available to the American public, GHB is positively benign, if not sometimes miraculous in its effects in typical use patterns. The point taken from this is, that if Tylenol made people feel good, the authorities would focus in on the thousands of suicides and severely damaged livers attributed to it over the years. That the move is on to force it into a schedule I category would seem then, to lie in the ease of its synthesis out of commonly available precursors and consequent ease of access.

Having mentioned precursors, the reviewer is compelled to point out the excellent section at the end of the book regarding the chemistry, technique, and cautions involved in the making of the various forms of GHB.

Anyone contemplating either using GHB, or certainly making it should buy this book and know its contents well.