DOCTORS PAY BIG TO KEEP DRUG OFF STREETS

Clinton Township Veterinarian Paul Turkal Calls His Clinic's Pharmacy Ft. Knox.

There's no bullion inside the fortress-like room, but rather a drug as good
as gold to thieves.

Ketamine, a sedative used primarily to tranquilize cats during surgery, has
made veterinary offices nationwide popular with burglars and armed robbers,
police say.

That's forcing veterinarians such as Turkal to play an expensive game of
keep-away from the thieves who sell the hallucinogen on the streets as
Special K, Cat Valium and K-Hole.

Buyers, police say, are often school-age kids and young adults looking for
a cheap high, often at nightclubs or middle-of-the-night parties called
raves. As with the more notorious club drug gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB,
Ketamine is used as a date rape drug. It is poured into the drinks of
unsuspecting victims, who are rendered unconscious or paralyzed.

"I have a daughter now," said Turkal. "I don't want this happening to her
or anyone."

Turkal has sunk $50,000 into his pharmacy security system, $90,000 total on
the clinic.

The pharmacy is the only room in the clinic with floor-to-ceiling cinder
block walls. A security camera and motion detectors look down from corners
of the room.

Only Turkal has the access code that opens the pharmacy door and the keys
that unlock the double-lock safe containing the Ketamine and other
controlled substances.

The staff has also been trained to spot suspicious people. Often thieves
posing as pet owners visit the clinics to get a lay of the office and break
in later, police and veterinarians say.

"This is something that has become much more prevalent in the last year or
two. I would imagine vets are being much more cautious now because the word
is out on this stuff," said Dr. Peter Prescott, executive director of the
Michigan Veterinary Medical Association.

Prescott and others say they suspect some veterinarians are selling the
drug. Some states have fined or revoked the licenses of veterinarians for
trafficking Ketamine, which is used to a lesser extent on dogs, horses and
humans.

Trafficking, Thefts Increase

Last summer, the Drug Enforcement Administration responded to the climb in
illegal distribution of Ketamine by classifying it as a controlled
substance, which means veterinarians must keep track of the drug and be
able to provide an accounting to the DEA.

"There were break-ins all over the place: Auburn Hills, Troy, Birmingham,
some in Sterling Heights and Warren," Oakland County Sheriff's Sgt. Joe
Duke said.

Three Rochester Hills veterinarians had Ketamine thefts two summers ago. A
little more than a year ago, five St. Clair Shores clinics were broken into
within several weeks of each other. Only Ketamine was taken.

Turkal says a cocaine-addicted man crawled in through the kennel door of
the clinic about a month ago in the middle of the day.

"I was going into surgery, and the girls started screaming," Turkal said of
his office staff. "He had a silver thing in his hand. I thought it was a
gun. So I pulled the coat over this guy's head so he couldn't get to his
arms. He was a 38-year-old man, high on crack. He had a crack pipe and
steel wool."

The man was arrested. Detroit veterinarian Ivan Gadjev hasn't had the same
satisfaction.

There still are no suspects in the armed robbery of his clinic April 7. He
was shot in the chest, arm and abdomen. He nearly died.

"He didn't get a chance to get my money or my Ketamine. I shot at him,"
said Gadjev, 62.

Gadjev is recovering at his Farmington Hills home. One bullet is still in
his side, and he doesn't know if he'll perform surgery again because of
wounds to his right hand and arm. He may close the Northland Veterinary
Hospital, which he bought in 1974.

"Usually they're after the money. They're after the sedatives and the
narcotics and that Ketamine in the last couple of years," Gadjev said.

Ketamine is a nationwide menace.

Emergency-Room Visits

Cases of abuse and overdose are turning up in emergency rooms in greater
numbers since 1994, according to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health
Services Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services.

In 1994, there were 19 cases of Ketamine use reported in emergency rooms
nationwide. The number jumped to 149 the next year and in 1996 dropped to
81. In 1997, however, the number of cases rebounded to a record-setting
318. In 1998, the last year for which figures are available, emergency room
visits that involved Ketamine use dropped to 209.

The drugs GHB and Ecstasy far outnumbered Ketamine with 1,282 and 1,142
cases, respectively, reported in emergency rooms in 1998.

All three drugs can kill by stopping the heart or causing a coma.

In March, police in Lake County, Ill., broke up a Ketamine theft ring
believed to be responsible for a rash of burglaries throughout the Midwest.

Two 19-year-olds and a 16-year-old were charged with four counts of
burglary. The 16-year-old claimed to be making $2,000 a week selling the drug.

Closer to home, two teens were suspects in the Jan. 31 break-in and theft
of Ketamine from a Smith's Creek veterinary clinic in St. Clair County.

Less than a month later, the teens, Brian Baer, 17, of Port Huron and
Thomas Eppley, 19, of Ft. Gratiot, put a hunting rifle to their heads and
killed themselves after a high-speed chase in Texas.

Ketamine is a newcomer to the illicit drug scene, Michigan State Police
Sgt. Jerry King said.

A typical 10-milliliter vial of Ketamine, a clear liquid, is enough to drug
about 30 people, depending on their body weights. Ketamine is usually
injected, but it can also be mixed with tobacco or marijuana and smoked,
King said. It is also poured into drinks.

"When I first got to this job about spring 1999 is when I got involved with
Ketamine. It was just starting to impact Michigan in a bigger way," said
King, who works in drug use prevention. "It's not as well-known as some of
the other club drugs, but when it starts to hit home is when you start
having deaths in your state."

Veterinarian Turkal said he's phasing out Ketamine. But for some
veterinarians the alternative drug is too expensive.

'We've thought of putting out a sign that says "We don't have Ketamine, so
go somewhere else,' " Turkal said.