FDA ISSUES WARNING ON 'PARTY DRUGS'

WASHINGTON (AP) 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 on
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
GBH that was banned in 1991. But companies are selling new varieties of the
chemicals in the guise of dietary supplements, substances that 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 GBH, 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.

GBH is a potent drug that some scientists are studying in carefully
monitored clinical trials as a possible narcolepsy treatment, but all other
uses of GHB are illegal. Despite that ban, the FDA two years ago discovered
laboratories illegally producing the odorless, tasteless chemical. It became
known as a "date rape" drug for rendering women helpless when slipped into
their drinks.

GBL breaks down into the banned GBH drug, so by law it also is illegal, and
the FDA began cracking down on those products in January.

Now the FDA has discovered that some companies are replacing GBL with the
equally risky BD in their products.

This isn't the first time BD has struck: More than 100 New Year's partygoers
in Los Angeles two years ago became sick after drinking "Cherry fX Bombs"
and

"Orange fX Rush." The drinks were alleged to be made from the kava plant,
but

the FDA said the maker instead substituted BD, which also is sold as an
industrial solvent. The maker was fined and sentenced to three months in
prison.

BD can cause dangerously low breathing rates, unconsciousness, vomiting,
seizures and death. It can increase the effects of alcohol and "is even more
dangerous when consumed with other depressant drugs," the agency warned.

FDA officials pledged to seize products containing any of the chemicals, and
already this spring have seized over 1,500 bottles from New York and Rhode
Island companies.

But during the crackdown, consumers must guard their own health.

"We can't be everywhere, so we really want to get the message out," said FDA
drug chief Dr. Janet Woodcock. "Look at the labels. Look very carefully at
anything marketed as an aid for sleeping," and don't consume any of the
suspect ingredients.

The chemicals also may be disguised under the names tetramethylene glycol or
2(3H)-Furanone di-hydro.