SUPPLIER IN FATAL OVERDOSE ORDERED INTO DRUG TREATMENT, WORK RELEASE

Until January, the letters "GHB" were meaningless to Nanci Haefner.

It was only days after her 25-year-old son, Lenny Latham, died from an
overdose of gamma-hydroxybutyrate, commonly known as GHB, that Mrs. Haefner
knew the drug existed.

"I had no clue what it was," she said.

Yesterday Jeffrey S. Hall was sentenced in Lucas County Common Pleas Court
for supplying the dose of the drug that killed Mr. Latham.

Judge Charles Doneghy placed Hall, 32, on community control for five years.

Judge Doneghy also ordered Hall to serve four months in the court's drug
treatment facility and six months in a work-release program.

Hall, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and a misdemeanor
charge of permitting drug abuse, also must perform 200 hours of community
service.

Mr. Latham, of Hidden Hills apartments, was pronounced dead about 12:45
a.m. Jan. 27 in Hall's apartment at 513 Adams St., about 13 hours after he
drank the drug. Prosecutors said Mr. Latham consumed 10 times the amount of
GHB that would be needed to put someone into a heavy sleep.

A depressant, GHB affects the central nervous system. The drug has gained
popularity among recreational drug users and sometimes is used as a
"date-rape" drug slipped into a drink to incapacitate an intended victim.

Mrs. Latham said she began to understand the potential danger of the drug
after reading an article in The Blade after her son's death. "I really
don't think kids really realize what they are messing with. You can die
from it and not even know you took the stuff," she said.

In sentencing Hall, Judge Doneghy said the defendant would likely have used
GHB again had Mr. Latham not died from ingesting the drug.

"Every day literally hundreds of people are dying because of the kind of
activity you engaged in that night," Judge Doneghy said. "You will have to
live with this for a long time."

Mrs. Haefner said the sentence was appropriate. " To send him to prison to
me would have been destroying another life and it would have not changed
the outcome," she said.