Look i'm a fairly new chem student so take it easy. I'm probably way off track, but how can we got forward without novel idea's. Ok
My Idea is the coupling of ethanol and acetone using an Manganese(III)acetate to form 5-Hydroxy-pentan-2-one which could possibly somehow be made into GHB (doubtful)
or
The coupling of ethanol and acetaldehyde and then the oxidation to GHB
I dunno. but I think it has possibilities
Check these out for more info
Rhodiums site on p2p from benzene and acetone using Mn(III) catalyst
Has good pics showing the mechanism
https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/p2p.manganese.html (https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/p2p.manganese.html)
Preparation of Manganese(III)acetate
https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/manganous.acetate.html (https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/manganous.acetate.html)