HOUSE PASSES 'DATE RAPE' DRUG BILL

WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (Reuters Health) - The US House of Representatives
overwhelmingly passed legislation Tuesday that would tighten federal
controls over substances used as 'date rape' drugs.

The "Hillory J. Farias Date-Rape Prevention Drug Act" - named for a Texas
teenager who died in 1996 after the 'date rape' drug gamma hydroxybutric
acid (GHB) was slipped into her soft drink - was approved by a vote of
423-1. The drug has been linked to assaults on young women, who are often
rendered unconscious by it. An overdose can cause life-threatening changes
in heart rate and blood pressure.

The bill would add that substance to Schedule I of the federal government's
list of controlled substances, the most tightly regulated entities. It would
add gamma butyrolactone (GBL), a precursor entity to GHB, as a List I
chemical. The measure would also add ketamine, an animal tranquilizer, to
the Controlled Substances Act's Schedule III.

"We have heard testimony that perhaps as many as 90 kids have died in the
last couple of years because of these drugs, and certainly thousands and
thousands of cases of abuse across the country," said Rep. Fred Upton
(R-MI). The bill, he said, "will make sure that on college campuses, in high
schools across the country, that there will be a force that the law
enforcement agencies will have where they can take this stuff off of the
street and save families from the nightmares that they would otherwise have
had."