GHB has been blamed for a number of deaths in the united states (ranging from 10 in the last 25 years to one site that blames it for almost 35 per year). The FDA and the DEA have agreed that the number is in the 30-65 in the United States for the past 10 years. Most of the deaths blamed on GHB have been later proven to have involved GHB as well as other substances. Quite often this is because GHB was mixed with alcohol. The FDA has reported that over 1,000,000 alcohol related deaths have occurred in the past 10 years. This means that roughly 17241 times more people have died from alcohol than from GHB, not to mention the 30,000,000 times more people that have died from tobacco products in that time frame. This works out to about 0.00000001% of the deaths related to substance use.

GHB causes death in an extreme overdose by depressing the central nervous system. This causes breathing and heart rate to slow down. In an extreme overdose (GHB causes death in far lower doses than alcohol, heroin, Rohypnol, or even Tylenol) this will cause breathing and eventually the heart to stop completely. When other depressants are ingested as well, the effects multiply causing increased dangers. One of the best ways to prevent this is to be knowledgeable. Knowing your own dose and personal limits is vital to taking any drug - especially one with as tight of a dosage curve as GHB.

One of the biggest myths about GHB related deaths is that most of them occur when someone spikes a drink with it. This is a horrible dangerous practice, but GHB should not be blamed for those deaths - the person who is putting a drug into another persons drink without warning them is to blame. Not only is it illegal to drug another person without their consent, it is dangerous - a person can only take risks like drugs on their own terms. Luckily the reality is that people do not spike drinks very often with GHB, and when it does the salty taste of GHB quite often tips of a potential victims. If 1,4-b is used the chance of detection skyrockets given the very artificial and chemical taste of 1,4-b.