GHB FAQ: What about all the GHB-related deaths?

GHB FAQ: What about all the GHB-related deaths? What about all the GHB-related deaths?

FDA and law enforcement reports quote variable numbers of deaths and life-threatening reactions due to GHB. Every case I have been able to find information on has fit into one of three molds: Interactions between GHB and other drugs, accidents, and respiratory problems.

Interactions
While GHB does not cause serious respiratory depression or unconsciousness, GHB and alcohol together do. Combining the two is very dangerous and leads to an unpredictable synergistic effect. Medical science has known about this for decades, and most drug culture sources warn about it vociferously. Every once in a while, someone takes them together anyway. This can easily be deadly, as can combining GHB with any other depressant.

Accidents
GHB impairs the ability to drive and engage in related tasks as badly as alcohol, and the effects are just as noticeable. People who attempt to drive while under its effects are indicating that they are dangerous, not the drug they use.

Respiratory problems
This is by far the largest class of GHB-related "incidents" reported by emergency rooms. Generally, the scenario is as follows: someone takes GHB without adequately researching dosage or expected effects. They fall asleep, either in public or among naive friends. When they can't be roused easily, someone calls an ambulance. The EMTs, knowing only that the subject took some kind of drug and is unconscious, react as if they were dealing with an opiate overdose - they put a tube down the trachea to ensure that the patient can breathe. Some GHB patients actually struggle in their sleep enough that the EMTs are forced to administer tranquilizers.

What is going on here is a failure to communicate. Although high doses of GHB can produce a very deep sleep, it is unlike opiates and other tranquilizers in that it does not depress breathing or heartbeat to dangerously low levels no matter how much is taken. There is no question that in most cases, these people would recover unharmed if simply left alone. The emergency care personnel are completely correct in not taking that chance, but it is nonetheless true.

Of course, for that very reason I cannot state categorically that not a single one of these patients would not have actually stopped breathing - all I can do is point to the huge body of human and animal research indicating that breathing just does not cease at reasonable doses. It may be that ridiculously abusive doses can cause some harm, but normal GHB users are not putting themselves in danger.

The insidious dangers of GHB are frequently substantiated with references to the death of Hillory Farias. To learn more about her case, see the Hillory Farias section of the FAQ.

Back to the GHB FAQ crisis center

Relevant sections from the full FAQ:

"Is GHB toxic? Addictive? Dangerous?"
"What about Hillory Farias?"
"How can I take GHB safely?"
Myths about GHB