CHEMISTRY KEY IN CLUB-DRUG TRIAL

The trial of a pair of Tennessee brothers in federal court Thursday in
Mobile sounded more like a science seminar than a narcotics case, with a
Drug Enforcement Administration chemist occupying the witness stand all day.

Authorities arrested Kevin Brown and Ronald Brown and more than 100 others
last September in Operation Webslinger, the nation's first sting targeting
Internet sales of the banned depressant gamma hydroxybutyrate or GHB.

The investigation -- which had its roots in nightclubs and a gym on Dauphin
Street -- also was aimed at two related chemicals: gamma butyrolactone or
GBL and 1,4 butanediol or BD.

GHB, also called "scoop" or "liquid X," is touted as everything from a
bodybuilding supplement to a sleep aid to a sexual stimulant. But it also
has commonly been used as a club drug and occasionally by acquaintance
rapists to incapacitate their victims. Congress declared it a controlled
substance three years ago.

The Browns don't dispute that they were selling BD, as alleged in the
indictment. Prosecutors contend a Tennessee man who bought it from their
Web site and ingested it died as a result.

At issue is whether BD is similar enough to GHB on a molecular level that
selling it violates federal law, and also whether the body converts it to
GHB once it is ingested.

The DEA organic chemist testified Thursday afternoon that after running a
pair of tests on GHB and BD, he found that at least dozens of other
compounds are more atomically akin to those two drugs than they are to each
other. He also said, however, that there are "tens of millions" of
compounds in the world, implying that a few dozen would be a comparatively
small group.

Gordon Armstrong III, Kevin Brown's lawyer, said the case is the first of
its kind in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and among the first in
the country, in that the defense is challenging established government
conclusions about the drugs involved.

U.S. District Judge Charles Butler Jr. is presiding over the non-jury
trial. Testimony is expected to continue through Monday, after which Butler
likely will take a few days to issue his verdict.