1, 4- Butanediol is the substance you are talking about. It used to be sold as a CD cleaning fluid among other things. It was/is a chemical industry solvent but was never widely used (there are hundreds of cheap alternatives) in Australian industry; it only became popular as a "solvent" for online sale after GHB and then GBL were both banned. It is now completely illegal in Australia and any detected attempt to import it from one of the online vendors still selling the stuff as a "solvent" will result in prosecution by the relevent authorities.
But best not to quote me so go and check out www.erowid.com or do a search here.
/edit; On closer inspection it seems that it is not completely banned and its use was originally quite wide spread. It is still pretty heavily controlled though.
Chemically speaking 1,4 Butandiol and Gamma Butyrolactone are quite different substances. The similarity and their relationship to GHB is that both are metabolised in the body into GHB.
What this means is that even if you have an account with a chemical supplier, if these chemicals are ordered, an End User Declaration Form (EUD) must be completed by any and all parties handling the chemical/s. No problem if you have a genuine legit use, but big problems if you don't.
It was sourced for the intention of selling/using as a drug and was done in large quantities before legislation was changed in June 2004.
It is used commerically in a brand name product used as component in the manufacture of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), and is diverted and either refined or sold/ used in an impure form.
Manufacturing PBT would be the most common use for 1,4B in the thermoplastics industry. The reaction is Dimethylterephthalate (DMT) + 1,4-Butanediol = PBT, which is in the same family of saturated polyester plastics as PET (polyethylene terephthalate).
