'THE PERFECT CRIME'

GHB Is Colorless, Odorless, Leaves The Body Within Hours-And Is Fueling A
Growing Number Of Rapes

After two whisky and Cokes, Patricia White decided to call it a night. The
47-year-old mother of three had been talked into helping her boss, Lorenzo
Feal, celebrate his birthday with several colleagues. As she was leaving,
Feal handed White a bottle of water, she says. She took a big gulp and spit
the rest out because it tasted salty. Three hours later, White woke up in
Feal's bed, naked and nauseated: she'd been drugged and raped.

WHITE FLED AND CALLED the police from her cell phone. Doctors found traces
of gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB)-a recreational drug that is fueling a
growing number of rapes-in her system. She's one of the lucky ones. Most
women don't have proof that they've been dosed with GHB-because it exits the
body within six to 12 hours. "Sexual predators are hunting with GHB," says
prosecutor Christopher Frisco, who convicted Feal of using an anesthetic
substance in carrying out White's rape. (Feal claimed the sex was
consensual.) "It's ideal for predators and tough for prosecutors." Another
prosecutor, Timothy Walsh, calls GHB-fueled sex assaults the "perfect crime"
since the liquid poison is colorless, odorless and frighteningly easy to
use. And without toxicological evidence, it can be difficult to prove that
the rape victim didn't willingly consent to sex. GHB, long popular among
club goers, has been illegal since 2000, but it can be manufactured in the
kitchen sink using commonly available chemicals. Most victims wake up hours
later with little or no memory of what has happened.

GHB's use has been growing for almost a decade, but recently doctors,
advocates for rape victims, and toxicologists called in to testify in
sex-assault cases have seen a large surge in reports of GHB-fueled sex
assaults. In just the past couple of weeks, both coasts have featured
sensational GHB cases. In San Diego, Andrew Luster, a Max Factor cosmetics
heir, went on the lam in the midst of his trial for multiple rapes;
prosecution tapes show Luster having sex with snoring girls. And in New
York, a Hofstra University student pleaded guilty to the 2001 murder of
another student who was doped on GHB at the time of his death. As recently
as 1994-when the drug was still relatively new-there were only 56
GHB-related emergency-room visits nationwide. By 2001 that number had spiked
to 3,340, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration.

Alarmed, colleges are taking an active role in protecting women. More than
40 universities and thousands of bars have ordered coasters that detect the
drug by turning blue when exposed to GHB (women splash their drink onto
"test spots"). But activists are already warning women not to rely solely on
the coasters, since they don't test for increasingly popular,
easy-to-obtain-and still legal-GHB knockoffs like GBL and 1,4BD.

The DEA is so concerned about the rise in GHB-facilitated sexual assaults
that officials have been meeting with representatives from the Rape, Abuse &
Incest National Network (RAINN) to heighten awareness of GHB and other
"predatory" drugs-an unusual move for an agency typically focused on
interdiction. In November, the DEA announced that it will double the number
of predatory-drug investigations it undertakes. Perhaps the agency was
inspired by a recent success: in September authorities announced the arrests
of 115 people in 84 cities for peddling GHB on the Internet.

The DEA's attention to the problem couldn't come at a better time. Some
RAINN centers are reporting as much as a 50 percent uptick in GHB-fueled
rapes in the past year. Trinka Porrata, a 25-year veteran of the Los Angeles
Police Department and founder of Project GHB, has been flooded with messages
from flummoxed cops trying to learn how to investigate rapes featuring this
quickly vanishing drug.

And victims are helping to spread awareness. "You don't get over rape,"
White tells NEWSWEEK. She now counsels victims and says she is talking
publicly so that others know what she didn't about GHB. With this drug, the
more you know the safer you are.