GHB BECOMING THE NEWEST DATE-RAPE DRUG

While the drug ecstasy might be known as a path to euphoria, the club
drug GHB is a road to agony.

What clubbers call GHB (short for gamma hydroxybutyrate) is largely
dismissed by young ravers as "grievous harm to body" and viewed by law
enforcement as the latest date-rape drug.

How did something originally developed as a sleep aid get marketed as
"liquid ecstasy" and grow so dangerous, so quickly?

A simple formula, recipes available on the Internet and kids looking
for a powerful high helped bring GHB into vogue. But its quick-acting
power has also proved devastatingly effective in the hands of would-be
criminals.

"GHB is the ideal drug for the rapist," said Linda Ebbert, a sexual
assault nurse at University Medical Center. "The person is down within
5 to 15 minutes and within four hours we can't even detect it in the
urine. It's extremely scary."

The mere mention of GHB at a recent rave led one young girl who
overheard the initials to frantically advise: "Don't take G! That
stuff is nasty!"

The Drug Enforcement Administration has documented 65 GHB-related
deaths nationwide and local medics say that they suspect the
increasing number of overdoses they treat are related to the hypnotic
sedative.

Although lower doses of the odorless liquid are said to produce an
effect similar to an alcohol buzz, the line between happy and social
and life-threatening can quickly blur by the capful.

"The index between the amount that will make you feel really, really
good and the amount that will make you unconscious is very small,"
said Dr. Steven Karch, a San Francisco-based drug death researcher who
has written the text "The Pathology of Drug Abuse."

GHB overdoses cause loss of consciousness and if coupled with alcohol,
the drug can cause respiratory arrest, coma and death. Since it is
sold mostly in liquid form, it can easily be slipped into drinks.

A 24-year-old Las Vegas woman who asked to be identified only by her
first name, Jen, fell victim to what she believes was GHB after only
half a drink.

"I went out with my friend after work on a Friday and ordered a rum
and Coke," said Jen, a casino cocktail waitress. "I remember after
about four sips I got entirely woozy and just felt like I wanted to
sleep.

"I looked over at my friend and she was saying something, but I didn't
hear her 'cause it was like in slow motion," she added. "Then it felt
like I was under water trying to come up for air.

"Next thing I knew I was lying in a hospital bed with a curtain around
me," Jen said.

Were it not for her friend's presence and quick thinking 911 call, Jen
thinks she could have been assaulted and left for dead.

"I don't even remember seeing anyone near my drink, but I know I
didn't exactly have it in my hand the whole time," Jen said.

Chris Parker, a paramedic for 11 years with American Medical Response,
has responded to numerous calls like Jen's.

"We had one 30-year-old female who was out with friends in one of the
clubs in town," Parker said. "Basically her friends told us that she
became more and more loopy and started getting sleepy."

Parker said when his ambulance arrived a short time later, "We found
her unresponsive with very shallow breathing."

Many victims of GHB overdose require immediate emergency room
attention and often need to be intubated -- a procedure in which a
breathing tube is inserted through the larynx.

Just as a dose can affect the body quickly -- sometimes in as fast as
5 or 10 minutes -- the drug also leaves the body rapidly, usually
within three hours.

"When these people recover it really is quick," Parker said.
"Sometimes these folks pull the tube out and try to leave the hospital."

Ebbert, who herself conducts about 900 sexual assault exams a year,
said she has never examined a woman who knowingly took GHB.

"Usually if they remember anything, they say they knew somebody was
doing something to them," Ebbert said.

More sexual assaults are reported in July and August in Las Vegas than
in any other months -- a statistic attributed to summer's carefree
attitude. Ebbert, one of two sexual assault nurses on call at UMC,
examined 10 victims in one four-day period this month.

"People are letting their guards down," said Renata Cirri, executive
director of Community Action Against Rape. "Most of us are still very
trusting and still very vulnerable to people who don't intend to do
nice things."

Metro Police Sgt. Keith Carter was partly responsible for getting GHB
classified as an illegal drug in Nevada.

"It's being used in clubs by guys who try to talk to a girl, start
BS-ing her and if they see it's not going well, they slip her some GHB
and then they can make inroads," Carter said.

Depending on a person's weight, and even the amount of food in their
stomach, a teaspoonful of GHB one night could simply create a high
when the same dose could result in seizures, vomiting and coma on
another night.

"GHB is the only thing that time after time after time I see people
taken out on stretchers after using it," said Michael Shulman, a Las
Vegas-based pop culture writer and a routine club goer. "GHB is just
damn stupid."