SEX OFFENDER CHARGED IN DATE RAPE DRUG BUST

BOCA RATON - A 24-year-old sex offender who bought a 55-gallon drum
containing a substance that could be used to manufacture 98,000 doses of
the date rape drug was arrested, federal agents said.

Matthew Michael Roth, convicted in 1995 of a lewd and lascivious act on a
child under 16, was charged Friday with drug possession under a federal act
prohibiting the manufacture, sale or possession of GHB, said Gerald
Hochman, Drug Enforcement Administration assistant agent-in-charge in Fort
Lauderdale.

"The potential for abuse would have been tremendous had this been
distributed," Hochman said Monday. "The potential for harm was catastrophic."

DEA agents intercepted the drum of the controlled substance GBL during the
delivery of the liquid to Roth's home from a Phoenix company, Inova
Products, Hochman said. Roth had just returned from a trip to Miami to
purchase sodium chloride, also used in the production of GHB, Hochman said.
DEA agents in Phoenix are investigating the company, which sells over the
Internet, Hochman said.

A man who arrived at Roth's home during the police search, 22-year-old
Christian Wallace of Boca Raton, faces a state charge of possession of GHB
after police found the drug on Wallace while searching him.

GHB, also known as "scoop," is a colorless and odorless drug that sells for
$5 to $10 a dose. One teaspoon mixed with alcohol can render a victim
unconscious within 20 minutes. Victims frequently have no memory of what
happened and the drug is difficult to trace, often leaving the body within
24 hours.

The GHB arrests come on the heels of at least two nearly deadly incidents
involving the drug and Florida partygoers during the past 10 days.

In Panama City Beach, emergency medical personnel treated three students on
spring break who were found unconscious in a parking lot. Police made an
arrest at the nightspot where the students said they bought the drug.

In Hollywood, four youths were placed on life support after drinking Sunny
Delight spiked with alcohol and the drug at a party, Hochman said. All four
are OK, Hochman said.