DESIGNER DRUG USE ESCALATES IN LOCAL CLUB SCENE

As Lawmakers Try To Quash Designer Drugs Like GHB And HBL, Chemists And
Distributors Outrun The Legislation By Tweaking The Formulas And Selling
Kits On The Internet

A 15-year-old Little Rock junior high student is driven around by his
friends for hours because they are too scared to take him home. They are
afraid they will get in trouble because he is hallucinating and freaking
out. They finally take him home. His mother immediately takes him to an
emergency room to be admitted for his hallucinations. He is suffering from
symptoms of paranoia and has both visual and auditory hallucinations. His
heart races and his blood pressure has jumped to the danger point. It takes
six hours for him to regain his composure and be able to see clearly again.

In Little Rock, a 20-something man passed out in the middle of the street
and the police took him to an emergency room. When he awoke, he didn't
remember what had happened.

In Texas, a young male patient is rushed into an emergency room, deep in a
coma and suffering from depressed respiration. The emergency technicians
scramble to save the patient's life, stuffing a breathing tube down the
man's trachea. Suddenly, in the midst of the procedure, the patient sits
upright on the operating table, wide awake, able to breathe normally and
wondering what the hell he is doing there.

In Georgia, a date rape drug conviction of two Atlanta men is challenged
because although there was no doubt that sex was involved the victim cannot
recall the alleged rape because the drug caused her to have no memory of it,
and all traces of the drug had dissolved in her body before she could be
tested by police.

And in yet another state, eight young people are rushed to the University of
Michigan Hospital emergency room suffering from overdoses of some new party
drug, all with symptoms of suppressed activity in their nervous systems. Two
or three of the cases could have resulted in death if they had not been
treated immediately, a hospital spokesperson says.

Separated by thousands of miles, these incidents all have one common
denominator: all of them involved the use of GHB (gamma-hydroxybutryate
acid), an increasingly popular party drug often used by Little Rock club
goers. The drug is also known by the name liquid ecstasy and is sometimes
confused with another designer drug, MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxy-
N-methylamphetamine hydrochloride), or the original ecstasy. Although they
are chemically unrelated, the effects of the two drugs can be similar,
particularly as a sexual stimulant. It was MDMA that eight California middle
school students ingested on their school campus, sending them to the
emergency room and to possible school discipline and criminal liability.

Local club owner, Norman Jones of Discovery, has waged a drug war of his own
to fight the ever increasing epidemic. People started passing out at the
bar, Jones says. To the ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control Board) or the local
law enforcement people, it could be construed that we sold them too much
alcohol or that we supply or condone drug use, which is far from the truth.
Anyone who enters Discovery will first see a 5 ft. tall sign that say Drugs
are dangerous and deadly and are not welcomed here, a clear indication of
where Jones stands on the issue of designer or any illegal drugs.

Last year, citing GHB-related emergency-room episodes that went from zero to
200 in California, the California Legislature passed legislation making
possession of the drug a crime.

But before fans of the substance had time to mourn its loss, Internet
distributors and amateur chemists were hopscotching over the law by changing
a chemical compound or two, marketing a new, equally intoxicating chemical
cousin called GBL (gamma butyrolactone). When mixed in water with another
easily obtainable chemical, NaOH, GBL can be transformed into GBH, which is
still legal. In fact, packages containing the two chemicals in separate
bottles were marketed on the Internet as GBH kits shortly after the GHB ban
went into effect.

According to the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information,
iat small doses GHB encourages a reduction of social inhibitions, similar to
alcohol, and an increased libido. Thus, it is often used in both the
straight and gay communities as a sex enhancer. At higher doses the drug
induces a deep sleep. At higher doses still, the drug user can appear to be
in a coma and adverse respiratory effects can occur. When mixed with alcohol
which distributors universally warn against doing, but some users do anyway
it can be fatal.

In 1990 the Food and Drug Administration began cracking down on so- called
designer drugs, bringing criminal charges against GHB distributors and
warning that GHB can cause dangerously low respiratory rates ...,
unconsciousness/coma, vomiting, seizures, bradycardia and death and
therefore poses a significant public health hazard.

As a synthetically produced drug, GHB has been used since 1960 in Europe as
a general anesthetic. In both Europe and America, GHB is being used by some
doctors both as a sleep inducer to treat victims of narcolepsy and insomnia
and as treatment to ease the symptoms of patients trying to recover from
alcohol addiction. In the United States, the drug has been legally sold over
the counter to bodybuilders as a growth hormone stimulant. It was sold under
such names as Renewtrient, Revivarant, Blue Nitro, GH Revitalizer, Gamma G
and Remforce.

GHB can also be easily manufactured by street and Internet chemists, and is
often sold underground in pill or bottled liquid form, where it goes by such
names as Liquid E, Great Hormones at Bedtime and Georgia Home Boy. Slightly
altering the letters, police sometimes refer to it as Grievous Bodily Harm.

Kit suppliers used to abound on the Internet, writes one GHB advocate,
Chemgirl, on her website. However, due to the over zealous actions of the
DEA, FDA and other law enforcement agencies, all the kit makers in the U.S.
have shut down. Chemgirl now suggests that interested parties obtain the two
chemicals separately, one of them from a soapwork supplier. DO NOT mention
GHB ... or ask any questions when communicating with [the soapwork
supplier], she warns. They are a real soap company. ... I have had several
emails from people who have had their orders refused because they ask GHB
related questions. This is a great source. Please don't fuck it up by asking
stupid questions or else they might stop selling NaOH without all the other
soap making shit.

One out-of-the-country GHB kit distributor, Pelchat Labs, openly boasts on
its website: I stopped shipping to the USA ... because the FDA made me
believe that [GHB] and [GBL] were illegal, the owner writes. After speaking
with one of their special agents I learned that they were in fact not
illegal ... but they were after suppliers who were selling to individuals.
... This special agent told me that there was no problem to resell to
companies who have legitimate uses. I checked my orders and I noticed that a
big part of them were already to companies. I decided to ship my chemicals
to the USA again to these companies (and new ones). If there is a way for me
to know that you will do something illegal with your order, I won't send you
anything, I will refund you and I won't answer your emails. To qualify as a
company, Pelchat Labs says the buyer must only put a company name on the
order form. How will you know my company name is for real? the website asks
in a FAQ. That is the problem, the lab owner answers. I won't know. I will
have to trust you. I know from experience that Americans are honest.

Some independent medical and chemical experts say that GHB is a therapeutic
drug that poses no risk to public health if used responsibly, and that its
banning is, according to one newsgroup poster, a rush to judgment crisis ...
manufactured by the [Food and Drug Administration], aided and abetted by the
[Drug Enforcement Agency], compounded by local police, inflamed by the media
and perpetuated by ignorance.

Last year, in its international newsletter distributed to patients,
physicians and researchers, the Narcolepsy & Sleep Disorders organization
called GHB one of the few apparent success stories in the recent history of
narcoleptic drug treatments. It has been extensively studied with some
individuals having used the drug with good results for over 14 years.
Stating that there were few reports of GHB prior to 1990 when it was a
legally available over-the-counter drug with printed warnings and dosages
and produced by reputable manufacturers, the organization said that its
members were not allowed to attend and present evidence at an Oakland,
California FDA-sponsored conference on GHB use while the GHB-banning bill
was being considered by the California Legislature. And one local expert
believes that the effort to ban GHB has made the problem worse, rather than
better, driving people away from established companies to underground
manufacturers and to new compounds.

One of the things I predicted, in the face of the government's war on GHB,
was that alternatives would quickly emerge into the marketplace, writes
Steven Wm. Folkes, executive director of the Menlo Park-based Cognitive
Enhancement Research Institute and a self-professed GHB user.

ACKNOWLEDGING THE MANY reported problems associated with GHB use, GHB
advocates on the Internet blame them both on what they call misuse and on
the government crackdown. One writes: The problem is drunk teeny boppers
take 10 times an adult dosage when they are already waxed. No wonder they
pass out. GHB is NOT to be mixed with alcohol. Therein lie most of the
problems. The rest come because the FDA has forced people to make it at home
rather than buying quality professionally made GHB.

And because GHB is a chemical that naturally exists in the body, there is no
telling how many of the problems attributed to the drug actually come from
its illegal use.

But there is one thing that law enforcement officials, government drug
regulators and GHB advocates all agree on: At unknown dosages or ingested
along with other drugs or mixed with unknown additives or alcohol, GHB can
be deadly. It was also implicated in the death of the actor, River Phoenix.

So as a holiday warning from the staff at the Free Press, please realize the
intensity of the risk you are taking and that it could be the last risk you
ever take. We are selfish here in the office and we don't want to lose any
of our readers unnecessarily. Remember what Aldus Huxley said, Drugs should
be a journey, not an escape.