POLICE PUZZLED BY PROBLEM OF 'CLUB DRUGS'

A new crop of odorless, tasteless drugs that are increasingly used by teens
and early twentysomethings have barely caught notice in San Antonio and
have left police puzzled about their impact on the city's nightclub scene.

But anti-drug officials say so-called club drugs should be taken seriously
because "denial is deadly."

San Antonio police say they have almost no experience with the drugs. And
they don't have field tests similar to those used for other illegal drugs
to instantly identify the drugs.

"Yes, they are new, and yes, they are difficult to detect, but we are not
going to give up," said Sandy Gutierrez, a San Antonio Police Department
spokeswoman. "We will be persistent and do what we have to do to find out
how to combat them."

As a veteran officer put it: "A lot of the guys don't know what they are
looking at. We come up with all kinds of garbage."

With street names such as Liquid X, Roofies and Special K, the illegal
drugs can be injected, smoked or swallowed.

Some come in tablets stamped with butterflies or fish-like designs; others
are sold by the bottle-cap and poured into beverages.

Just a few pills or drops can trigger euphoria and unleash the energy to
dance all night or drain users into coma-like stupor or even death.

Even if chronic users survive, they can end up addicted and facing a
grueling withdrawal similar to that of a heroin addict.

"You don't smell it. It is easy to get and looks like medicine," a
16-year-old Alamo Heights High School student confided.

"You don't have the same problems you have with pot," the student said,
noting that police and parents don't seem to be able to spot the difference
between the drugs and legitimate medication.

Club drugs, as they are known for their use at parties and nightclubs, have
been entrenched for more than a year along the East and West coasts, but
they are comparatively new in San Antonio and trail far behind the use of
marijuana and crack cocaine.

Testifying before a House committee in June, a senior FBI official said the
use of club drugs had spread through virtually every major U.S. city and
was hitting cities as small as Beaumont.

"It is fair to say that the use of club drugs by your youth is quickly
becoming one of the most significant law enforcement and social issues
facing our nation today," Lewis Rice Jr., head of the FBI's New York
office, told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime.

Rice testified that 1999 brought a tenfold increase in the amount of some
club drugs seized nationwide.

The most popular club drug, ecstasy, which usually comes in tablet form,
triggers euphoria but can lead to heat exhaustion and paranoia. In some
cases involving death, users' body temperatures soared to 110 degrees.

Rohypnol, first known as the "date rape drug," leaves users feeling drunk,
but can lead to unconsciousness.

Ketamine, a tranquilizer that can trigger hallucinations, disrupts the
heart rate and breathing. GHB, a liquid drug that triggers sedation, can
lead to unconsciousness.

"Parents probably don't know about these drugs because the kids are just
learning," said Dr. Donald Vereen, deputy director of the White House
Office for National Drug Control Policy.

"They are harder to detect," he said of the drugs. "When you have alcohol
on your breath, it is like waking up with a big scarlet A on your forehead."

"Denial is deadly. We were in denial about cocaine. There is always denial
at the beginning of an epidemic," said Vereen, who added that more needs to
be done to educate the community about the drugs.

Some local school officials say they haven't found the drugs on campus but
concede that students almost certainly already have gotten their hands on them.

"If they are making their way into the area, we will hear about it," said
Victor Garcia, a spokesman for the North East School District.

"We have so many, 50,000 (students), that, statistically speaking, some of
the drugs should be in their possession," he said.

A 1999 National Institute on Drug Abuse survey found 4.4 percent of
10th-graders and almost 6 percent of 12th-graders questioned had used the
drug X, or ecstasy, during the past 12 months.

That compares with a National Household Survey on Drug Abuse released
Thursday that finds that 9 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds questioned said
they had used an illegal drug within the past month.

And overall, illicit drug use among 18- to 25-year-olds climbed from 15
percent in 1997 to 19 percent last year, according to the survey.

"These are not drugs to play with. They have very serious and final
effects," said Dr. Jane Maxwell of the Texas Commission for Alcohol and
Drug Abuse. "We're beginning to see people who have used these drugs in a
party or nightclub setting (being treated) in emergency rooms."