Xyrem is a
trade name for the drug
gamma-hydroxybutyrate, also known as
sodium oxybate or
GHB (or, if you work for the
DEA and believe anything anyone tells you, as scoop, soap, and "salty water."). The Xyrem name is owned by
Orphan Medical, a
publicly traded U.S.
corporation that specializes in drugs for
orphan diseases.
GHB is naturally a very safe
drug. It is an effective
tranquilizer which does not suppress
REM or
slow-wave sleep or have
hangover potential, unlike the commonly used
benzodiazepenes such as
diazepam (
Valium™). It is also the only known treatment for
narcolepsy that appears to
normalize the
underlying neurological disorder. It is for this purpose that Orphan Medical wishes to market GHB, and current multi-year tests (run by independent investigators) show very promising results.
However, because GHB is also a popular
recreational drug, the U.S. government has seen fit to declare it tremendously illegal. In an odd twisting of the
controlled substances act, GHB has been placed on
schedule I, the list of the most intrinsically dangerous and medically useless substances. However, Xyrem -- which is identical in every way except that it is manufactured and sold by a corporation under officially-
sanctioned circumstances -- is on schedule III, with other moderately-regulated medical drugs like
codeine.
This situation is ripe for
satire, and as an advocate of GHB before it received the legislative smackdown I
yearn to savage the government's unjust policies. But I have to admit that this makes a hell of a lot more sense than the default assumption of the controlled substances act, which is that drugs -- simple chemicals -- are intrinsically dangerous or safe, independent of how or why they're used. It's true that GHB purchased on the
street is more likely to be poorly-made, improperly-measured, or used by people who don't know how to avoid
abuse. Unlike the situation with
medical marijuana, in which people who are dying from
cachexia or being blinded by
glaucoma are denied a potent medicine, the GHB
legislation is not disgustingly
inhumane, merely
unjust.