HOUSE PUTS GHB ON LIST OF ILLEGAL DRUGS DIET SUPPLEMENT USED IN 'DATE RAPE'

The House yesterday gave final approval to a bill that would list a
powerful diet supplement and "date rape" drug as a controlled substance
carrying the same penalties as the most powerful illegal narcotics.

The bill covers gammahydroxybutric acid, also known as GHB, and similar
substances, which are touted by Internet vendors as helpful additives that
promote everything from sound sleep to bigger muscles and better sex.

But the Food and Drug Administration has documented 58 deaths from GHB and
its analogues, known as GBL, BD or 1,4 butanediol, and since August 1999,
the FDA has received 122 reports from health professionals around the
country of serious GHB abuse.

The bill was approved by a vote of 329-2 yesterday after being passed
unanimously in the Senate late last year. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the
bill's principal House sponsor, said President Clinton has indicated he
will sign the measure.

Upton said he started working on the legislation a year ago when Samantha
Reid, 15, died after teenagers at a party in Grosse Ile, Mich., spiked her
drink of Mountain Dew. Reid vomited once, passed out and never recovered.

Jury selection began yesterday in Detroit in the trial of four young men
charged with manslaughter in the Reid case. "It is an awful story," Upton
said. "I heard from people from all over the Midwest."

The FDA banned GHB in 1991, but a 1994 law makes it virtually impossible
for the federal government to control the sales of natural "diet
supplements" that metabolize into GHB once they are ingested. The
supplement is marketed under brand-names like Revitalize Plus, Serenity,
Enliven and Thunder Nectar.

Yesterday's measure sidesteps the supplement question by adding GHB, its
precursors and its analogues to Schedule I of the Controlled Substances
Act, a list reserved for illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine. Possession,
manufacture or distribution of GHB will carry penalties of up to 20 years
in prison.

First notorious as a date rape drug, GHB has been promoted in recent years
for enhanced sexual and athletic performance and better sleep. Phoenix Suns
basketball star Tom Gugliotta, apparently unaware of the dangers, had a
seizure on the team bus and was hospitalized late last year after taking a
dose of GHB.