CLUB DRUGS FINDING THEIR WAY INTO THE UPSTATE

The idea of a higher high was enticing.

So, after drinking a few beers at a Greenville nightclub on Halloween
night, Joseph "Cannon" Outz accepted a soda-bottle cap full of "home brew"
from a friend and downed it with orange juice.

An hour after drinking what he would later discover was Blue Nitro, the
21-year-old Berea resident collapsed into a seizure and began choking on
his own vomit. He survived only after paramedics were able to restore his
breathing.

"They gave him a 20 percent chance to

make it once they brought him back to life," said his father, Michael Outz.
"It was terrifying to see your son lying there. His eyelids were purple
from loss of oxygen."

In the days following the incident, the elder Outz searched bookstores and
health stores trying to find out what almost killed his son. He would
discover what Greenville County has slowly been learning over the past two
years: Blue Nitro is a variation of GHB -- commonly referred to as a "club
drug" -- and what happened to his son is becoming a weekly occurrence in
area hospitals.

The Greenville County Coroner's office has only recently found out that
standard drug screening doesn't detect GHB and since has confirmed two area
deaths in the past two years were GHB related.

Local authorities say club drugs have officially entered the Greenville
culture, invited by party-goers in their teens through early 30s who are in
search of the higher highs as they dance to bass-driven music until the
early morning at raves and in clubs.

"It's at epidemic proportions. It's not just a counterculture; it's
everywhere," said Carol Reeves, director of the Greenville Family
Partnership. "We're just now getting a wake-up call."

The trendy thing

Ecstasy, GHB and Ketamine are just a few of the drugs that have been termed
club drugs or designer drugs. The designations come from the frequency
they've been found in clubs and the fact that GHB and Ecstasy, especially,
are made in labs.

Just searching for the names Ecstasy or GHB on the Internet yields
thousands of Web sites with detailed information on everything from their
effects, dangers and how to make them.

Emanuel Sferios, founder and national director of Dance Safe, which
encourages education while not condoning the use of drugs, said most of the
Ecstasy found in the United States is made in Europe.

Sgt. Mike Gambrell, spokesman for the Greenville Police Department, said
some drugs are produced domestically. "All it takes is someone with a
science background," he said.

Ecstasy, GHB and Ketamine are most often lumped together under one
convenient name but they actually are different in many ways. Lots of times
the drugs are combined with one another or even marijuana, heroin and cocaine.

Least Of Evils

Ecstasy, widely considered the least dangerous of the drugs, produces an
enhanced sense of pleasure and self-confidence not to mention psychedelic
effects. As an amphetamine, it also increases energy levels that allow
users to dance all night long and then some.

Pills of Ecstasy are often imprinted with cartoon characters such as
Pokemon or athletic team or car logos. Reeves said the culture has broken
free from its underground status and has practically become mainstream
through music and movies.

Sferios said the drug is here to stay. "It's a very unique drug," he said.
"It has a very unique effect and its rapidly becoming the most popular drug."

Authorities and healthcare professionals agree that the most dangerous
aspect of the Ecstasy, aside from the fact that the little pill the user
swallows may not be Ecstasy at all, is that it causes dehydration and the
body's temperature to rise, sometimes as high as 108 degrees. This can be
especially dangerous in the hot, crowded conditions at raves.

Users sweat a lot and have to keep drinking water to replenish the liquids
they lose. There's no hangover, Reeves said, but the user will fall into a
depression that can last months after heavy use. Although it's not
considered addictive, she said people with limited interpersonal skills can
come to depend on it. The verdict is still out on the long-term effects --
though recent research hints that it's not positive -- Reeves said that's
not a reason to try it.

"They're messing around with something that can come back later," she said.

Tricky Dosage

GHB, which Sferios said was given the nickname "liquid ecstasy" by dealers
who wanted to cash in on the reputation of Ecstasy, is more of a
psychedelic sleep-inducer and can especially be lethal when mixed with
alcohol. Outlawed by the Congress this year, it is most common found as a
clear, odorless and practically tasteless liquid.

Another dangerous aspect of the drug is that there isn't much margin of
error between a safe dose and an overdose, Sferios said.

Authorities believe the inexact science of the doses and the lack of
knowledge of users is a leading contributor to the growing medical problem.

"It's unbelievable how close these people are coming to death and they
don't even know it," Evans said. "The sad part about this whole thing is
the people who are using GHB are under the impression that as long as you
leave these people who overdosed alone, they will sleep it off and
everything will be fine. But that's really not the case at all."

Like Rohypnol, GHB is considered by the government to be a date-rape drug,
but Sferios said he thinks that claim is greatly exaggerated. But because
of the negative publicity the drug has brought the rave community, it has
begun to police itself in many parts of the country, he said. "It now has a
stigma attached to it by the rave community itself," he said.

Ketamine is primarily used in veterinary medicine as a painiller, and can
be addictive. Fraley said he has not seen any cases of ketamine come
through the emergency rooms of the Greenville Hospital System nor has
Evans, the coroner, seen any cases. The drug is most often sold in powder
form and can be snorted or injected. Sferios said in small doses, users
fall into a dreamy state, whereas larger doses create a strong
disassociative affect.

"Beyond raves"

All-night parties sans the alcohol may sound good on the surface to parents
but authorities say they're often a vehicle for a growing drug culture that
appears full throttle in movies, music and clothing.

Outside of the same Greenville night club where Outz overdosed, two young
Greenville men say they can pretty much tell who's "rollin'" -- slang for
being high on ecstasy -- and who isn't. But, they say, to see the real
action it's imperative to go to a rave. "I've been to a lot of raves," John
White, 20, said. "That's where it's all at."

Raves feature loud repetitive music and light and laser shows that
perpetuate a user's high.

The Greenville Police Department and the county Sheriff's Office say the
first rave appeared in the county roughly two years ago. In that time, vice
and narcotics investigators from both departments have become familiar with
the ways of the all-night dance parties that attract as many as 2,000
people from all over the Southeast.

Raves are carefully watched by law enforcement but they are rarely violent
and are legal in South Carolina.

"The situation with rave parties is that they create an atmosphere for
using Ecstasy," said Sgt. Mike Gambrell, spokesman for the Greenville
Police Department.

Sferios said raves -- and many of the club drugs -- have been around in
states such as California and Florida since the mid-1980s. He said not all
teens who go to raves use drugs and designer drugs are no longer restricted
to raves. "Ecstasy is available and accessible everywhere," Sferios said.
"It's not only at raves. Raves have been associated with Ecstasy,
historically. But it has gone way beyond raves."

Raves are most often advertised through glossy fliers with
computer-generated graphics that almost always give directions to the
venues from neighboring states.

One thing is for sure, Reeves said, and that is that those who buy into the
drug use and go to the raves are victims of commercialism. Just to get in
costs $10 to $25 and water, which can cost more than twice the amount of
beer, practically outsells beer two to one, authorities said.

"It's not about kids having a good time," Reeves said. "It's all about one
thing -- making money."

Reeves said by selling glow sticks, which create an effect for those
rolling on Ecstasy, and mouthpieces, which users bite on to soften the
constant teeth-grinding and jaw-clenching the drug creates, organizers must
know that drug use is a part of their parties.

It all comes down to parents really knowing what going on, experts stressed.

Joseph Outz and his family agreed to speak to The Greenville News for this
article because they didn't want the same thing to happen to anyone else.

"Lots of parents, like myself, they don't know what's out there," said his
mother, Joann Outz.