The enforcement powers of the FDA, on the other hand, are defined by the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The FDA is charged with policing the use and promotion of substances for which medical claims are made: Because medical claims (sleep aid, growth hormone stimulant) were made for GHB by its distributors, the FDA had full authority to shut them down.
"The major issue is not [GHB's] designation as legal or illegal," says FDA spokesperson Janet McDonald. "The issue is what is its intended use. And if you can't tell from the bottle, if there's no inkling of what this is for and how it is to be used, then we have the option of moving on it, of finding out ourselves."
McDonald compares the crackdown on GHB to similar FDA enforcement actions against laetrile and DMSO, compounds for which medicinal claims had been made but not proved to FDA satisfaction. She says that FDA actions against GHB had "long preceded" its press release on GHB.
"The action of that release was to alert the public that this drug was dangerous. The fact is that people who do this can become unconscious. It is too dangerous a drug to play around with," she says.
"We have actions going on all the time. And to limit them to November 1990 is wrong. November is not a special date. We had things going on before then, and we continue to take action. The FDA has the power to prosecute, power to inspect, the power to issue search warrants, power to seize products, and power to enjoin. I don't know about enjoinments, but we've done everything else," McDonald says.
Much of the recreational GHB consumed today arrives in small quantities via mail order from Europe, purchased by folks who hope that Customs and the FDA don't find out. A supply house in the Netherlands sells 50 grams of GHB for $300.
"There should be automatic detention of any GHB that comes into the country," says McDonald of the FDA. "We don't check on every item that comes in though, and if it comes in small quantities to individuals chances are that it's going to get through."
Whatever success the FDA and Customs have in blocking foreign-made GHB will probably increase the demand for stateside clandestine manufacture. Crude synthesis of GHB requires little more than a hot plate and a few beakers. Vodka, lye, and hydrochloric acid are a few of the essential ingredients listed on the flawed recipe posted on the Internet, but you'd only consume this concoction if you considered yourself a human guinea pig. Manufacturing a purer batch demands better chemistry and more sophisticated precursors, like Procaine, which are sold by chemical supply houses like St. Louis' Sigma Chemical. Either way, it remains difficult to determine the purity or potency of GHB sold on the street.
(The Sigma catalog also stocks GHB at $14.40 for 10 grams, but whether they'll sell it to you or simply turn your name over to the FDA is another question.)
Depending on the specific charges brought by the feds, an unauthorized GHB manufacturer or distributor could face five to 15 years in jail and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. As for simple possession, with no intent to distribute, GHB is legal.
FDA spokesperson Arthur Whitmore says, "We would not have or seek a penalty for personal use of GHB. Our interest is in the distribution side, and interstate commerce to protect the public at large."
Ken August, a spokesperson for the California Department of Health Services, says, "Possession of GHB by an individual is not illegal. GHB is not a controlled substance."
Although the Free Clinics' Galloway has anecdotal evidence that the SFPD has been exposed to GHB through drunk-driving arrests, and that prevalence in the Bay Area is on the rise, Lt. Jim Hall at the SFPD's narcotics division says he's never heard of the drug.
Continued...
