DRUG TYPE SINGLED OUT AS DANGER

Nonprescription 'party drugs' and sleep aids linked to comas, deaths,
officials warn

Americans should avoid more than a half-dozen sleep aids and "party drugs"
sold in health food stores and on the Internet because they can send people
into comas or even kill, the government warned Tuesday.

The urgent consumer warning is part of repeated Food and Drug
Administration efforts to remove from the market chemicals related to a
party drug called GHB that was banned in 1991. But companies are selling
new varieties of the chemicals as dietary supplements, which are largely
unregulated.

At least three deaths are linked to the products and 119 other people have
suffered serious side effects, including comas, losing consciousness and
requiring quick insertion of breathing tubes to stay alive, the FDA said.

Do not use products containing the ingredients GHB, or gamma
hydroxybutyrate; GBL, or gamma butyrolactone; or BD, known as 1,4
butanediol, the government warned. Some such products are sold under the
names Revitalize Plus, Serenity, Enliven, GHRE, SomatoPro, NRG3, Thunder
Nectar and Weight Belt Cleaner, the FDA said.

"We're urging people not to use or buy these products," agreed Texas Health
Commissioner William Archer in a separate warning to Texans last week that an
Austin man had died from consuming BD- containing Thunder Nectar.

GHB is a potent drug that some scientists are studying in carefully
monitored clinical trials as a possible narcolepsy treatment.