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GHB overdose?
GBL
by tM
Citation:   tM. "GHB overdose?: An Experience with GBL (exp130)". Erowid.org. Jul 18, 2000. erowid.org/exp/130

 
DOSE:
4 tsp oral GBL (liquid)
BODY WEIGHT: 200 lb
I had been using GHB (as well as LSD, mushrooms, marijuana, DXM, and Ketamine) rather frequently at the time of this incident (late 1997) and had never been more intoxicated than a moderate 'drunk' by the quantities of GHB I'd tried, which were up to 7 grams at once or 11 grams staggered over several hours. I was my own supplier/chemist and thought that I was thoroughly in control of any situations I chose to be in but proved myself quite fallible one Autumn evening. I was brooding alone at my flat after my roommate had gone out on a date. My baseline GHB dose at the time was typically 4 grams and I kept the liquids in the house mixed at a 1 gram per teaspoon ratio.

I was a bit bothered about a recent breakup and had been using other recreational drugs quite heavily over the past few months so I thought nothing of washing down 4 teaspoons of some leftover GHB I'd found in the cupboard (Oooh! surprise cache!) with a glass of apple juice, which was my favourite mixer at the time. It tasted a bit stronger and nastier than usual but I wandered back to the computer and resumed perusing newsgroups without a second thought. Very shortly the effects began to come on with an unusual intensity and within minutes I was unable to focus my eyes on the monitor.

Out of sheer dumb luck, I stumbled over to a recliner and passed out in an upright position, which may possibly have saved me. I awoke some five hours later to find my roommate in a pale but relatively calm rage, reading through my own bookmarked research to try to determine if an ambulance ride to the hospital was in order or if sleeping it off was still an option. He and his date had returned two hours previously to find me unconscious and covered in my own vomit. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to arouse me, she went home while he tried to work through what to do -- he himself being a lifelong abstainer from any illicit substance. My assumption is that my being upright prevented me from aspirating my own vomit and kept the damage level to a minimum. At any rate, my return to consciousness did not signify any level of sobriety, which I soon discovered upon attempting to clean up a bit. I was still completely demolished and unable to coordinate any movement beyond crawling crookedly across the floor. I was entirely too dizzy to sit upright and found that standing was completely out of the question.

Over the next hour I began to regain my faculties a bit only to discover that (as an effect of the dosage, I would assume) I was extraordinarily depressed. I spent the next two hours sobbing, talking with my roommate and generally feeling suicidal and worthless. I began to calm down some time later and eventually went off to bed, still completely at a loss as to why I had been so radically affected by what I had considered to be a marginal dose of GHB. The next morning while doing laundry and cleaning various articles of furniture, I stumbled upon the cause of the previous night's mayhem: the 'extra' GHB in the cupboard turned out to be the remainders of the unreacted lactone I'd had left over from a prior batch. Yeah, drugs don't always make you the sharpest knife in the drawer.

One interesting (at least to me) sidenote is that I never experienced such a level of depression in conjunction with GHB except on two occasions when I took GHB and DXM together, the first time 3g/300mg and the second time 4g/600mg, respectively. A good friend with a long history of bipolar depression found this particular cocktail to be quite enjoyable; I personally have no explanations to offer other than that extended chemical experimentation may impede romantic efforts, but that's another story now, isn't it?

Exp Year: 1997ExpID: 130
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jul 18, 2000Views: 19,337
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GBL (89) : Alone (16), Overdose (29), Health Problems (27)

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