URI HEALTH EDUCATORS WARN ABOUT GHB AND ITS EFFECTS

Some people take it to build muscles, to look younger or to get a good high
for a Friday night party. Some people aren't aware that they are taking it
at all. GHB, a common party drug that is sometimes used in date rapes, is
often mistakenly thought of as being harmless to the body. Team Seven New
England, a drug prevention program based at URI, is trying to educate
students on the potential dangers of the drug.

Roger Jadosz, a health educator at URI, started the Designer Drug Awareness
Program immediately after he came to work here in 2000. While working on
the DDAP, Jadosz became affiliated with a California based website called
Project GHB. This program helps people deal with addictions and sexual
assaults caused by the drug.

Gamma hydroxy butyrate, which usually comes in a liquid form resembling
water, produces feelings of intoxication and euphoria. However, GHB's side
effects can include nausea, drowsiness, amnesia, vomiting, and loss of
muscle control, respiratory problems and death.

The project was started in 1999 by three parents of people who died from a
GHB overdose and president Trinka Porrata, a retired police officer and
drug consultant.

Jadosz said Project GHB has dealt with 300 deaths, 10,000 adverse reactions
and 600 addictions to the drug since 1999.

Jadosz said that he started Team Seven New England, one of eight chapters
of Project GHB, because he felt the university needed to get up to speed on
the current drug scene.

"I was more concerned with the stuff people don't know much about," he
said. Jadosz said that drugs like marijuana have been dealt with in the
past, but people are still learning about drugs such as ecstasy, special K
and GHB.

Jadosz said it's his job to make people aware of the truths about GHB.
"There's a lot of myths and half truths out there," he said.

According to the Project GHB website, internet groups which promote the use
of GHB say that it can be used to build muscles, fight depression, relieve
anxiety, combat aging and enhance sexual performance.

Jadosz said GHB sometimes is put in mood enhancers and other supplements
and people don't even know it's there.

"It's not just students trying to get high, not just athletes trying to get
built or some jerk trying to put it in some girl's drink, it's senior
citizens too," he said.

Not only does Jadosz need to educate the general public, but said that
health officials and police officers also need to be better aware of GHB
because it's hard to trace and leaves the body quickly. He said that a
person getting pulled over because they appear to be driving while
intoxicated would pass a breathalyzer. "It's hard to identify unless you
know what you're looking for," he said.

Jadosz gives presentations on campus to athletes, sororities and dorms. He
also travels to other schools in New England to get them involved with Team
Seven New England.

Jadosz said interest in these drugs has been growing. When he hung up a
brightly colored poster in health services with the words "Drug Alert"
written across it he said that the phone hasn't stopped ringing. "It's been
growing and growing and growing ever since," he said.