diff --git a/src/runtime/build_asserts.go b/src/runtime/build_asserts.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5ce480be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/runtime/build_asserts.go
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+//go:build runtime_asserts
+
+package runtime
+
+// enable assertions for the garbage collector
+const gcAsserts = true
+
+// enable asserts for the scheduler
+const schedulerAsserts = true
diff --git a/src/runtime/build_noasserts.go b/src/runtime/build_noasserts.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0316989e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/runtime/build_noasserts.go
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+//go:build !runtime_asserts
+
+package runtime
+
+// disable assertions for the garbage collector
+const gcAsserts = false
+
+// disable assertions for the scheduler
+const schedulerAsserts = false
diff --git a/src/runtime/gc_conservative.go b/src/runtime/gc_conservative.go
index 7cd61e88..f556eb38 100644
--- a/src/runtime/gc_conservative.go
+++ b/src/runtime/gc_conservative.go
@@ -37,11 +37,7 @@ import (
 	"unsafe"
 )
 
-// Set gcDebug to true to print debug information.
-const (
-	gcDebug   = false   // print debug info
-	gcAsserts = gcDebug // perform sanity checks
-)
+const gcDebug = false
 
 // Some globals + constants for the entire GC.
 
diff --git a/src/runtime/gc_leaking.go b/src/runtime/gc_leaking.go
index eab67939..e9352076 100644
--- a/src/runtime/gc_leaking.go
+++ b/src/runtime/gc_leaking.go
@@ -11,8 +11,6 @@ import (
 	"unsafe"
 )
 
-const gcAsserts = false // perform sanity checks
-
 // Ever-incrementing pointer: no memory is freed.
 var heapptr = heapStart
 
diff --git a/src/runtime/gc_none.go b/src/runtime/gc_none.go
index ab0b4b40..6ca55563 100644
--- a/src/runtime/gc_none.go
+++ b/src/runtime/gc_none.go
@@ -11,8 +11,6 @@ import (
 	"unsafe"
 )
 
-const gcAsserts = false // perform sanity checks
-
 var gcTotalAlloc uint64 // for runtime.MemStats
 var gcMallocs uint64
 var gcFrees uint64