GHB: ANOTHER DEADLY HIGH FOR KIDS

The first two boys arrived at the emergency room in Ridgefield in such
deep comas they were barely breathing. The third boy, walking in right
behind them, was fine. Lucid. Articulate. Called for the ambulance
even though it meant catching hell from his parents, then followed his
friends to the hospital to talk to the doctors.

``We took some GHB,'' he told them. ``I only took a little. They took
a little more.''

So they got the breathing tubes. He got to watch.

That's how it works with gamma hydroxybutrate. A little can't hurt -
but a little more can kill.

I know this drug has some benefits and that there are doctors who
claim there's never been one authenticated case of death by GHB alone.

But you tell me.

When it comes to your kid, do you make a distinction between death by
GHB and, say, death by drowning on your own vomit because nobody
turned you over after GHB made you pass out? Or death by fire, because
the cigarette in your hand burned the house down?

Must be some comfort, knowing little Johnny, or Julie, would be alive
today, if they hadn't also had that darn beer!

Let's face it, when it comes to kids, proper drug usage is an
oxymoron. They're the ones turning up in droves in Connecticut's
emergency rooms. ``The majority of them are 13 to 17 years old - it's
really alarming,'' says Dr. Marc Bayer, Medical Director of the
Connecticut Poison Control Center in Farmington.

``Think about it,'' he says: ``An unregulated drug kids can order over
the Internet and get delivered to their mailboxes right under their
parents' noses. A drug which can knock you out and cause you to stop
breathing.

``You know kids. If they drink one beer, they figure why not two
beers? If a little GHB makes me feel good, more will make me feel better.''

The results? Hallucinations, writhing disorders, delirium, nausea,
vomiting, slow heart rate, coma, ``then unconsciousness and
respiratory depression,'' says Bayer.

Of course we are talking about overdoses. GHB's most gung-ho booster,
Dr. Ward Dean - West Point graduate and former flight surgeon for the
U.S. Delta Force counter-terrorist unit - notes that if you drink
twice as much as you're used to, you also get sick.

But consider the quantities involved. With liquid GHB we're talking
teaspoons, not jiggers. If one steadies your nerves, maybe two make
you happy and three knock you out. Or maybe not.

Measurements mean zip because overdosage varies with size, sex and
metabolism; whether anything was eaten; who brewed the batch, with
what ingredients, using which recipe, how?

Some cooks make sure the pH won't torch your esophagus by adding white
vinegar until the drug is neutral. Others forget. All recipes call for
sodium and/or potassium salts, but some substitute lye, which is cheaper.

In Connecticut, as in most states, GHB remains legal to possess but
not to sell, so most people either buy the ingredients separately or
in kits, or on the streets from someone who did.

Perhaps somebody offers to sell you a vial or a capful on the street,
or in a bar. That could be how a 20- year-old East Lyme man became
Connecticut's first GHB-related death on April 4th - taking the drug
after a night out drinking.

Last week, during one 48-hour period, emergency rooms reported
treating seven kids with GHB overdoses to the Poison Control Center.

Bayer estimates that in just Hartford County during June's first two
weeks, there were ``at least 12 reported cases,'' which you can
multiply by at least three, he says, because most ERs don't report.

``The more cases they treat, the less they call Poison Control because
they know what to do.''

There's not much to it. Airways are cleared. Patients are intubated
and given oxygen. Vital signs are monitored. Many kids recover
spontaneously, sitting bolt upright in bed the moment the drug's worn
off, refreshed, hungry, roaring mad at whoever took them to the hospital.

Unlike most other drugs, including alcohol, a GHB emergency room visit
isn't much of a disincentive to do it again. None of that nasty
activated charcoal backing up from your belly into your mouth. Rarely
a hangover, even.

If you're a kid, your friends are probably less likely to take you to
the hospital the next time you overdose, after seeing you come out of
the first one alive.

I've seen kids sitting on curbs outside Irving Plaza in New York
following a concert, passing out, going into seizure. It's called a G-
Lock. Their friends just lay them in the back seat of a car or carry
them home. Which is OK. But only sometimes.

In the words of Dr. Ward Dean: ``GHB should not be used with
benzodiazepines (``minor tranquilizers'' such as Valium and Xanax),
phenothiazines (``major tranquilizers'' like Thorazine and Stellazine),
various painkillers (barbiturates and opiates), alcohol, anticonvulsants
(Dilantin and phenobarbital) and even many over-the-counter allergy and
sleep remedies - without direct medical supervision.''

You think the kids read the label? Whoops, no labels on street drugs.
Maybe they read Dean's book, ``GHB: The Natural Mood Enhancer,'' about
its applications for sleep and sexual disorders, depression,
alcohol-withdrawal and body-building, even its potential for the
treatment of Parkinson's disease.

Which is all very well, I guess - or it would be, except that
legislators aren't seeking to control this drug so that it could be
properly manufactured, prescribed and kept out of the hands of
children. They are looking to criminalize it.

In at least 20 states including California, Massachusetts and Rhode
Island, it is now a felony for anyone to possess GHB. Most offenders
would be children.

We are supposed to watch over children, not put them in prisons. It's
perfectly natural that they, like everybody else, enjoy altering their
consciousness. It's just our job to stop them. I mean, as soon as
they're walking, they're spinning to get dizzy. It seems just a hop,
skip and a jump and they're into single-malt scotch.

It's not like I have answers to this problem (apart from intercepting your
kid's Internet order at the mailbox) or even an ending for this story. But
I think you'll enjoy this quote from Swiss biologist Claude Rifat:

GHB ``induces emotional satiety and when you are emotionally satiated
you do not feel like asking for more joy as you feel already fed up
with happiness!!!'' (His punctuation) ``Yes, you can be fed up with
happiness! That is why people using GHB do not become addicted.''

You think he's had a couple of teaspoons too many, or
what?