CLUB DRUG' USE SOARS IN LEXINGTON

Arrests, Emergency Room Figures Raise Alarm Over Ecstasy, GHB

Overdoses of mind-altering club drugs treated at the University of Kentucky
Hospital emergency room more than tripled in the last 12 months.

The numbers of Ecstasy tablets confiscated by Lexington police officers
soared from 10 in 1999 to 1,500 in the first half of 2001.

The growing popularity and abuse of club drugs reported by police and
medical authorities have prompted the Mayor's Alliance on Substance Abuse
and the Kentucky State Police to launch public information campaigns aimed
at communities and parents.

``It's not here in massive numbers,'' Lexington police Capt. John Jacobs
said yesterday, ``But there's a core group of people who do party drugs.
It's a danger that needs to be recognized.''

``Club drugs'' is a loose description for several stimulants and sedatives
popular at dance clubs and all-night dance parties known as raves. GHB is
also known as the date rape drug. Another drug is Ecstasy, a common
nickname for the stimulant 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine.

Authorities are particularly concerned because rapes and violence are
thought to accompany club drug use, but many victims are afraid to make
police reports, Jacobs said.

Use of club drugs is a concern statewide.

``We're starting to notice an increase in Ecstasy and GHB, and most of it's
happening at raves,'' state police Lt. Kevin Payne said.

``The music, the beats, the lights all enhance the effect,'' he said.

To help parents and community groups identify and prevent club drug use,
state police public information officers soon will begin talks throughout
the state. The officers took training two weeks ago, Payne said.

In Lexington, the Mayor's Alliance has directed its discussions about the
drugs to parents, warning them about activity in Lexington clubs, Bosse said.

Stephan Stapczynski, director of emergency medicine at UK Hospital, said he
doesn't think that a public awareness campaign aimed at young people will
persuade them to stop using the drug.

``It will take them having a personal experience or having one of their
friends affected,'' he said.

Lexington police are arresting an average of one to two people each month
in connection with club drugs, Capt. Mike Bosse said.

The state and local increase in use mirrors a national trend. The number of
federal convictions for Ecstasy trafficking has jumped dramatically from 20
in 1998 to 169 last year, a 745 percent increase, according to officials
from the U.S. sentencing commission.

Federal guidelines enacted by the U.S. Sentencing Commission that went into
effect May 1 mean longer prison stays for people caught with large
quantities of Ecstasy pills. Someone caught with 800 pills could serve five
years, up from less than two years. And those caught with 8,000 pills or
more could serve 10 years.

Stapczynski said physicians have improved tests to determine whether people
coming into the emergency room have ingested GHB, the so-called date rape drug.

But improved diagnosis isn't the only reason that the numbers of overdoses,
which grew from about 15 to 50 in 12 months, are increasing, he said.

``I think use is on the rise in this area,'' Stapczynski said. He said most
patients are college age or in their 20s.

Club drugs can give users a boost of energy, relax them in social
situations, or deepen their sensory perceptions and provide hallucinations.

In some instances, the drugs also can sicken or kill partygoers by speeding
their heartbeats, exhausting and dehydrating them or conversely by relaxing
their bodies until motor skills, even breathing, become impossible.

The drugs are especially dangerous if taken with alcohol, a depressant that
affects many of the same parts of the brain.

Many of those treated at the UK Hospital emergency room arrive in comas and
need help breathing, Stapczynski said. Luckily, GHB, a nickname for the
sedative gammahydroxybutyrate, leaves the body quickly, sometimes within hours.

State officials aren't classifying drug overdoses by specific drugs, said
David Jones, executive director of the state Medical Examiner's Branch. But
Jones estimates that three club-drug deaths may have occurred statewide in
the last several months.