GHB in solution. How to proceed with solvent evaporation?

[Burn it up]

I am unsure if this is the correct sub forum, as this is not really advanced. However I presume the answer can be better here than in BDD.


For risk reduction's sake, I wanted to evaporate all of the solvent from a liquid GHB solution to get GHB in solid form.

The reason for this is that I have in my power a vial of liquid GHB and I am unsure of the concentration of it. I don't want to risk ODing on it, so I thought that just evaporating all the solvent would be the most intelligent way of measuring my dose accurately.

As far as I know, this GHB was made from GBL with sodium hydroxide dissolved in water. I am aware of the hygroscopic properties of GHB, so I really don't know how I could remove the solvent. Can someone help me out please?

Thank you.

 

[sekio]

The "solvent" is water. Simply boil it away. You'll be left with some chunky white stuff; Na-GHB. It's fairly heat stable.

A better idea is to boil only a small portion of it, weigh however much solids you get, and then you know the concentration of the rest of the liquid.

 

[Black]

i've never done that, but i'd say put it in a glass dish, let the water evaporate, then put the wet ghb into a sealed container with some dry silica (if it isn't dry, then put it in the oven for an hour or so). it might be a good idea to check the pH beforehand; you never know if the person who made it from gbl knew what he was doing.

edit: i didn't see sekio's post. if ghb is heat stable you can of course skip the with the glass dish.

 

[Solipsis]

Not sure what the point is, removing water for harm reduction?

If you boil off enough water to push the GHB solution past the saturation point, when it cools down it will settle into a big white waxy chunk. Do this in an open baking dish, it will be easier to break up the chunk. Doing this in a flask is pretty annoying. Yes you can try keeping that moderately dry (though there will probably be water in it anyway, it does not get wet and mushy until it attracts back much more water from the air (it is quite hygroscopic).

It is not necessarily bad HR to do this, if you keep track of the total amount of G you made and the total weight of the chunks. That way you can check the concentration or extent of hydration. I still don't think it is anything but a waste of energy except for a few types of situations... and sharing this product with others requires proper informing of the strength.

IMO you cannot OD on liquid GHB as long as you assume that it is a saturated solution (meaning maximum concentration physically possible) and especially if on top of that you titrate. You cannot really make a liquid GHB solution for which a dose is less than about 3-4 ml. If you try to make it more concentrated it will precipitate (crash out of solution) and cease to be a clear liquid. Assuming a safety margin, if you take 2.5 ml and ingest it in small increments not much can go wrong. While if you try to make pure solid GHB you are probably just doing the same thing i.e. assuming that it is pure (maximum 'concentration'), while it may actually contain extra water just like the solution you started with.

 

[Epsilon Alpha]

Unless I'm totally missing the point of that "e" GHB has a solubility of roughly 7.11 g/L in case you want to put it back into solution later, and I applaud you for wanting to know your dose. Knowing your dose is key to harm reduction and what bluelight is all about.
http://www.drugbank.ca/drugs/DB01440

If you don't have a scale you can use the various solubility tables out there to estimate how much you have via addition of water with a oral syringe so long as you're at roughly room temperature.

 

[Solipsis]

The principle is good, again as long as you are actually able to get all that water out. Otherwise you are still guessing at the concentration/potency but with a 'maximum' of what it physically could be. Which is the same when you make that assumption about a saturated solution.

Knowing your dose is of course always a great thing for HR, if you actually do. But titrating your dose is also always safer than jumping right in, if thinking that you know the dose gave you a false sense of security.

The best might be to take both these options and cross-checking the results.