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An assessment of the harms of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), and closely related compounds

In January 2020 the Home Secretary commissioned the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to review the evidence for the classification of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) and related compounds under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (MDA), and the scheduling of these compounds under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 (MDR).

This report reviews the evidence of harms of GHB and related compounds that have emerged since the ACMD’s last significant assessment of the risks of GHB and its prodrugs, GBL and 1,4-butanediol (1,4-BD) in [ACMD, 2008a].

The ACMD recommends that GHB, GBL and 1,4-BD be moved to Class B of the MDA (pg. 53, Recommendation 3). 

The aim is to enable the ACMD to assess the level of harms associated with these compounds and to make recommendations to mitigate these harms – including (but not limited to) recommendations on the most appropriate classification and scheduling of these compounds under the MDA and MDR respectively.

An assessment of the harms of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), and closely related compounds | Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) | Nov 2020

MEN R US Comment: In our opinion, to include FRANK, Antidote, Crew (only)  as "current sources of available information" is lazy (pg. 58, Information and support); and term 'harm reduction' is not mentioned once in the report.

UK drug council knows GHB crackdown targets queer people, recommends it anyway

"Spurred by media panic around a so-called “chemsex crimewave,” the United Kingdom’s independent drug policy advisors are recommending that people involved with the highly stigmatized depressant gamma-hydroxybutyrate and related substances (GHB-RS) be subject to harsher criminal penalties.

But the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) did not make its recommendation to escalate punitive responses unanimously. An unspecified number of ACMD experts on the Technical Committee, which deliberated GHB-RS’s change in classification under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, objected. They warned that intensifying criminalization will only inflict, not reduce, harm—particularly for queer and trans people.

The ACMD was commissioned by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel to investigate GHB-RS at the beginning of 2020—shortly after the conviction of, and ensuing media fixation on, a gay man of color for committing large-scale sexual violence that was allegedly facilitated by GHB-RS. On November 20, the ACMD published its assessment of the harms of GHB-RS and its recommendations in response."

UK drug council knows GHB crackdown targets queer people, recommends it anyway | Talking Drugs | 24 November 2020

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