4 DRINK LIQUID, LAND IN HOSPITAL

Each man swallowed a capful of what may have been the drug GHB. They
vomited, then passed out.

SPRING HILL -- Four men were rushed to the hospital and one of them
nearly died Wednesday night after they took a clear liquid substance
they thought was the increasingly popular drug known as GHB.

Authorities are now investigating where the man who provided the
substance -- a former Ohio law enforcement officer -- obtained it.
And they are using the near-fatal incident to warn people, especially
teens who make up a large percentage of those using the chemical,
that it is dangerous.

"Fortunately, we don't have any dead bodies," said Hernando County
sheriff's spokeswoman Deanna Dammer. "(GHB) is just starting to
appear in this county, but why wait until we have a death? This is
not like taking a little drink. You just don't know what it can do."

Officials stress that they are not sure the substance the four men
took Wednesday while at a friend's house on Finland Avenue was GHB --
formally known as gamma hydroxybutyrate. Although a woman died in
Tampa after taking the drug on New Year's Eve, overdose deaths are
relatively rare. Emergency room visits are growing, however.

Samples of the substance have been sent to a lab for testing. Once
sold in health food stores, GHB is now illegal and known as both a
date rape and a club drug that induces a stupor effect. It and its
chemical cousins are widely available on the Internet as ink jet
cleaners and nutritional supplements.

The Spring Hill man who handed out the substance Wednesday night,
whose name and address officials have not released, said he regularly
uses GHB and believed that is what he gave his friends, a sheriff's
report said. Officials said the man is a former Ohio law enforcement
officer who now works in real estate and is self-employed. When
authorities questioned him, he repeatedly called GHB a "renutrient."
He has not been charged in the incident.

Authorities arrived at the house late Wednesday after Jason L.
Donnell, 24, of Tampa called 911. Donnell, who appeared sober, told a
deputy that the four other men had taken one capful of GHB each, a
sheriff's report said. Immediately afterward, each man began vomiting
and -- one by one -- passed out.

The men, Manuel Alvarez, 38, of Tampa; his roommate Robbie K. Fessia,
27; Anthony Novembre, 30, of Tampa; and the Spring Hill man, were
taken to different local hospitals. Worst off was Novembre. Spring
Hill Regional doctors predicted that he would survive the night but
said he had serious lung problems caused by the amount of vomiting.
An extreme case of pneumonia could threaten his life in the lung run,
a report said.

By Thursday, Fessia and the Spring Hill man had been released from
the hospital. At midday, Alvarez was in stable condition at Oak Hill
Hospital, and Novembre was in critical but stable condition, Dammer
said. Hospital officials would not release updated conditions
Thursday evening.

If tests confirm the drug was GHB, the men will be among the growing
number of people who have been injured by or who have overdosed on
GHB and GHB-related drugs. So far, 5,700 people have reported such
incidents, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. At least
76 have died.

Over the past several years, seven people have died from GHB-related
complications in the Tampa Bay area.