'DATE RAPE' DRUGS WIDELY ABUSED, U.S. CONGRESS TOLD

"Date rape" drugs are more widely abused in the United
States than most police and lawmakers believe, and are being used not
just to assault women but are being abused by bodybuilders, dancers
and teenagers seeking to get high, experts told Congress on Thursday.

They urged Congress to outlaw the drugs, with severe consequences for
anyone abusing them, especially to help in an assault.

"You have absolutely no clue how big this problem is," Trinka
Porrata, a former Los Angeles police officer and expert on the drugs,
told a hearing of the House Commerce oversight subcommittee.

Perhaps most frightening is a drug known as GHB, or gamma hydroxy
butyrate. Known as "easy lay," "scoop," "liquid ecstasy" and other
nicknames, it is tasteless, colourless and easy to mix into drinks.

"GHB is the easiest drug on Earth to make and the hardest drug to
recognise," Porrata said.

Instructions for making it in a bathtub are on the Internet, and
Porrata said teenagers schedule "rape parties" to mix it up and use it
not only to get high themselves, but to drug unsuspecting young women
and assault them while they are in a coma or unconscious.

Some of the victims have died, as have people who deliberately abused
the drug. Several men have been jailed for drugging and raping women
with GHB.

Dr. Stephen Zukin of the National Institute on Drug Abuse said
bodybuilders use it Thinking it will help them lose fat and grow
muscle. "GHB is still being marketed in Europe as a general
anaesthetic, a treatment for insomnia and narcolepsy, an aid to
childbirth and as a treatment for alcoholism," he said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said it had documented 3,500
cases of abuse or trafficking in GHB and 32 deaths since 1990.
"Poison control centres reported over 900 GHB incidents in 1997,"
DEA's Terrance Woodworth testified.

But the drug is hard to test for and disappears from the system very
quickly, often in 24 hours.

Porrata, who retired to go around the country full-time, teaching
police and other groups about the dangers of the drugs, said police
are up against an almost invisible target.

"This is all that a rapist needs to commit a rape with GHB," she said,
holding up a small white plastic eyedropper.

"I plead with you to put these drugs where they belong." Porrata
recommends making them Schedule I drugs, which designates them as
drugs of abuse with no medical value.

Doing that would not stop legitimate development of the drug for use
in treating narcolepsy, she added.

Orphan Medical , a small, Minnesota-based company, is studying GHB for
treating narcolepsy, a neural disorder that affects about 125,000
Americans. It wants GHB made a Schedule IV drug, which would designate
it as having a low potential for abuse, on a par with the popular
tranquilliser Valium.

The most notorious "date rape" drug, Hoffmann-La Roche's Rohypnol, is
a Schedule IV drug and the company has promised to release a
blue-dyed, salty-tasting version so it can be less easily abused.

Michigan congressman Bart Stupak, a Democrat, has introduced a bill to
make it a crime to possess GHB and the veterinary drug ketamine, also
known as "special K," which is similarly abused.

It would make them Schedule III drugs, with possession by a first-time
offender punishable by five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Jo Ellen Dyer, who teaches pharmacy at the University of California
San Francisco, said GHB can cause "profound coma", can affect
breathing and can become addictive.

Dyer described Internet sites promoting GHB as a weight-loss aid that
can regrow hair, build muscle, and enhance virility.