DATE-RAPE DRUG DEATH SHOULD SERVE AS GRIM WARNING TO YOUNG

The date-rape drug GHB -- gamma hydroxybutyrate -- goes under a
grab-bag of street names, including Women's Viagra, Easy Lay and
Grievous Bodily Harm.

Harmless in appearance -- it can easily be mistaken for clear water
- -- its ingredients are basically those found in floor strippers and
drain cleaners. Taken in small doses, its effects include a loss of
inhibitions and what users describe as a "warm and fuzzy feeling."

But the dose that 22-year-old student Zoe Read took accidentally at a
house party in Victoria early in March was fatal.

Read died of respiratory failure three days later in hospital. Her
needless death has sent shock waves through the B.C. student community.

It has resulted in admissions that GHB is in common use at parties
attended by young people, and is often taken with other drugs, whose
combined effect is far from predictable.

Police have confirmed that at the party where Read fell asleep after
taking a swig from a Gatorade bottle cocaine and alcohol were also
being passed around.

Why are so many young people, even smart ones with enormous future
potential, so obsessed with getting high?

And why is it only after some awful event that they become conscious
of the dangers?

The Internet is a great source of valuable information on the risks
of drug-taking.

But as the Zoe Read tragedy proved, many are flirting with death --
and don't even know it.