VSU FORUM DISCUSSES EFFECTS OF DESIGNER DRUGS

VALDOSTA -- They speak of the smile that played across his lips when
something fun happened. They remember his sense of humor, his good looks,
his youth.

"He made every situation a little more fun, a little more enjoyable," David
Monk says, thinking of his friend, Will Franklin.

Monk is joined on the stage by two other friends of Franklin's. More of
Franklin's friends sit in the audience. They sit among an estimated 700
young people attending a Valdosta State University program called
"Choices," which was held last week on campus.

Franklin is not sitting with the students. He no longer can. His friends
speak of him as a memory because Will Franklin died this past summer.

Franklin's "cause and manner of death as determined by the State Crime Lab
in Decatur, was the result of the combined effects of gamma hydroxybutyric
acid (GHB) and ethanol," according to the results of toxicology tests.

Designer drugs like GHB, ecstacy and "roofies" are some of the newer
illegal drugs on the street. They are as readily available as marijuana,
cocaine, crack, LSD and other illegal drugs throughout Valdosta, South
Georgia and the rest of the nation.

These designer drugs aren't exactly new, nor are they suddenly appearing on
Valdosta's streets. It's just that they have become more readily and more
easily available -- another tool of the "peer pressure" trade that young
people must face, another group of drugs to add to the list along with
alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, LSD, heroin and an assortment of pills that
DARE programs must incorporate into their classroom education, that parents
must worry about as their teen-agers and young-adult children go to school
and out into the world.

The only difference is most parents of teens and young adults know almost
nothing of these new designer drugs. Many middle-aged parents have either
experienced first-hand or through the experiences of friends the effects of
one or more of the older drugs, like marijuana, LSD, cocaine, crack, etc.
But ecstacy, GHB and Rohypnol are drugs they know through what they've read
or seen on TV, or what they have unfortunately learned by the first-or
second-hand experiences of their children.

Three years ago, a young woman, in her early 20s, suddenly slipped from her
chair at a local bar. She writhed on the floor, as if having a seizure. Her
eyes rolled back into her head. Her voice was a moan that ascended to a
broken-glass shrill, followed by muted gasping; then, her voice worked
through the lower to higher octaves again, repeatedly as if she chanted a
mantra, punctuated by choked gasps.

A friend said she and the young woman had taken something with a guy they
had slipped into the women's restroom. The friend said she didn't know what
he gave them, but her reaction to it was different than the girl who was
apparently locked in a seizure.

The guy, who was also probably in his early 20s, was still in the bar,
stoned on whatever he had taken with the girls. He said it was liquid E,
which is a form of ecstacy. He got it from some guy. The intense
questioning, the girl's apparent seizures, the friend screaming and pushing
him sparked only one real reaction from him.

The whole scene, he said, was ruining his trip.

At least, one problem with designer drugs is similar to other illegal drugs
available on the streets. Designer drugs are like a box of chocolates --
you know it's chocolate, but until you try it, you're not certain of what
you're getting.

One ecstacy manufacturer, for example, may make his XTC differently from
another, just as a crack dealer may use a higher grade or more cocaine when
making his crack than another dealer. The potential tragedy comes when a
user thinks they are using the same thing, in the same amount, that gave
them such a great buzz before. If they are unaware that the ingredients are
different or a higher quantity of a content is being used, the consequences
can range from a more intense reaction to an unexpected and deadly overdose.

"There are no regulations, no quality control. You never know what you're
getting or who made it," Kay Plunkett, Will Franklin's aunt, warns the
"Choices" audience. Valdosta Police Chief Frank Simons says he knows of
cases where ecstacy has been manufactured using cocaine and heroin.

Becoming a designer-drug manufacturer is almost as easy as logging onto the
Internet.

Several sites offer recipes and kits for making these drugs. By only
browsing a few of these sites, one thing stands out -- there is almost no
universal recipe offered; many of the ingredients are similar, but the
amount of an ingredient used often changes from site to site.

"Designer drugs are created by underground chemists by manipulating the
chemical composition of known drugs to produce analogs, which are closely
related drugs that often are more powerful than the compounds from which
they were derived," according to a recent article in The Valdosta Daily Times.

But before underground chemists started tooling around on the Internet and
distributing their wares on the streets, where did these drugs come from?

Many of these drugs were first developed by reputed biochemists who
stumbled onto a creation they didn't expect.

In 1978, biochemist Alexander Shulgin wrote the first scientific article on
ecstacy. Ecstacy "'could be all things to all people,' he recalled later, a
cure for one student's speech impediment and for one's bad LSD trip, and a
way for Shulgin (now 74) to have fun at cocktail parties without martinis,"
according to Time magazine.

Ecstacy is often called the "hug drug" because of the feeling of serenity
and emotional understanding that often accompanies its use.

In the '80s, ecstacy had a brief period of mainstream use, before the
federal government outlawed it because of harmful side effects in 1985.

By the '80s, powdered GHB was also in the mainstream, sold in health stores
and gyms; it promised results in body building, increased stamina for
weight lifting as well as weight reduction.

In 1990, the Food and Drug Administration compiled more than 30 cases of
GHB users becoming extremely ill in California, Florida and Georgia. They
linked cases of severe nausea, vomiting, respiratory problems, seizures and
comas to GHB use. GHB was also banned from legal use.

In Valdosta and Lowndes County, teens and young adults, counselors and
law-enforcement officials have all seen the effects of designer drugs.

There have been arrests involving Rohypnol, also known as "roofies" or the
"date-rape drug." Young women have been raped after roofies have been
slipped into their drinks, making them helpless.

Young people have been arrested for possessing ecstacy; the hospital has
admitted people experiencing bad trips. There have been deaths linked to
using these drugs.

"We've certainly had a significant exposure to ecstacy in the city," says
VPD Chief Frank Simons, "and some exposure to GHB. Ecstacy is the drug of
choice for a young, party crowd. A lot of them don't realize the dangers.
They know it can make them feel good and there's no hangover like with
alcohol."

The VPD's experience with these drugs has mostly involved young adults of a
college or night-club age. Luckily, the VPD has seen little use on a
middle-school or high-school level, "which isn't to say it can't be found
in a younger-age group. We just haven't experienced that yet."

"Young people use drugs for many different reasons: to fit in, to
celebrate, to overcome shyness and different settings and to deal with
stress," says Dr. Victor Morgan, VSU Counseling Center. "But what may start
as casual use can end in physical addiction, psychological dependence and
death."

Realizing that students fall in to all of the risk categories and face all
of the pitfalls of drug abuse, VSU has taken a "proactive approach to
educating young people" about drugs.

Valdosta State University is one of the few Georgia campuses offering an
Alcohol and Other Drug Education Office.

It is part of the university's Counseling Center, is dedicated to educating
VSU students, staff and faculty on the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse,
says Mark Williams, who oversees the office.

"We use a program called KARMA, which means Knowledge, Awareness, Respect,
Maturity, Achievement to train peer educators so students can talk to
students," Williams says. The office responds mostly to invitations from
campus-based groups, but it also offers referrals, instruction on how to
help a friend abusing drugs and substance-abuse assessments, within the
Counseling Center.

One of the dangers of some newer drugs, Williams says, is that there "is an
intrigue about what they do for you and to you. I think especially ecstacy
has a romantic notion to it. They call it the 'hug drug'. It can offer a
pleasant experience one weekend, but it can be a nightmare the next weekend."

Following friends' recollections of Will Franklin's life, Chief Simons
takes the "Choices" podium. He did not know the smiling, joking, flirting
Will Franklin that friends recalled, he says.

"I only met Will in death, when he was laying on the floor," Simons says.
"He was quiet, cold and blue. I was there when the bag was zipped up ..."

Simons says he wants young people to understand the very real dangers of
drug abuse and how quickly it can change a life. It's the reason he
attended "Choices" last Sunday night in VSU's University Center.

"It can lead to drug overdose, ending your career before it starts, jail or
death," Simons says.

Franklin, a 20-year-old Valdosta State University student, a member of
Sigma Alpha Epsilon, was found dead the morning of July 9, face down on the
living-room floor of a Georgia Avenue house. A resident summoned medical
help after Franklin would not awaken.

Will Franklin is very much a part of the "Choices" program. Friends share
their memories. One young woman reads a poem about missing Franklin and
wondering why he had to die.

Kay Puckett, Franklin's aunt, shares the emotional toll the death has taken
on her and other members of the family.

His death is considered to be the reason why the hundreds of folding chairs
are full in the Magnolia Room, why dozens of students line the walls and
sit on the floor once all of the seats are taken.

While Franklin's death shocked the student community, "Choices" organizers
are shocked by the turn-out.

"Several years ago, when drug and alcohol programs like this first appeared
on campuses, we'd only see a handful of people show up," says VSU Police
Chief Scott Doner.

Inside the Magnolia Room, the students hear plenty about the possible
consequences of using designer drugs; they hold hand-out sheets detailing
the effects of numerous illegal drugs.

But once "Choices" ends, as they return to their daily lives, is when they
may face the true dangers of drug abuse, and what happens to them next
depends on the choices each student makes.