A WARNING ON 'RAVE DRUG' USE

When Scott Perkins sees a bags of Skittles, M&Ms or miniature Tootsie
Rolls, he thinks of only one thing: the designer drug Ecstasy.

When it's water bottles or liquid mint drops, he sees only the popular date
drug known as GHB.

Those are popular methods for smuggling so-called club drugs into large
dance parties called "raves," said Perkins, a former Green Beret and police
officer from Orlando, Fla.

Perkins, one of the nation's foremost experts on the growing popularity of
club drugs and the rave scene, shared his knowledge Thursday with almost
200 law enforcement officials and educators at a program put on by the
Kentucky Crime Prevention Coalition.

"Any area with young adults, and especially areas around major colleges,
are going to face these problems at some point," Perkins said. "The kids
using these drugs are smart, and if you're not on top of things, you aren't
going to catch them."

One of the first officers in the country assigned to investigate club drugs
in early 1991, Perkins has conducted extensive undercover operations at
night clubs and raves, mass gatherings of teen-agers and young adults that
typically revolve around Ecstasy as well as music, dancing and other
activities that users say enhance the drug's sensory-heightening effects.

A gunshot wound suffered during a 1998 SWAT operation forced him to take
medical retirement, and now Perkins does consulting work for law
enforcement agencies across the country.

Perkins' workshop Thursday took a step back and gave a history lesson on
the rave, from its roots in Europe in the 1980s to its arrival in the
United States in the early '90s to its recent connection with organized crime.

The goal was to help officers connect with people in the rave culture so it
would be easier for them to blend in during undercover operations at raves.

Perkins, for example, explained the difference between a Smurf, Bootleg and
Wafer - different forms of Ecstasy, all of which produce both stimulant and
psychedelic effects for three to six hours.

A rave in Grant County last October drew more than 1,500 people, small time
by Perkins standards. While working in Florida, he attended raves that drew
as many as 15,000.

Robert Scroggin, a detective with the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force,
worked the Grant County rave and helped to make four arrests there.

He said that was validation of what drug agents had long suspected: that
big city raves were making their way into secluded rural areas, bringing
lots of club drugs and dealers with them.

Perkins talked about how many medical and law enforcement officials have
only recently begun to receive proper training to help catch drug
traffickers and provide those who overdose on club drugs with medical
attention.

Many of the drugs don't show up on drug tests used in the region, but that
is chang ing, Scroggin said.

"The guy is dead on," Scroggin said of Perkins. "We used to just look for a
quarter bag of weed or a kilo of methamphetamine. It's a whole new game now."

Jeannie Hutchinson, an in structor for Grant County's Positive Outcome
Program, which helps educate at-risk teenagers, took Perkins' warnings
seriously. Too often, she said, adults erroneously feel that the club drug
craze will skip rural areas.

"I think the state should mandate that anyone involved with education
attend a seminar such as this," Ms. Hutchinson said.

"A lot of people out there are just clueless," she said.

(SIDEBAR)

Common club drugs

Methamphetamine

Street names: Speed, ice, chalk, meth, crank.

Effect: Usually made in laboratories from over-the-counter ingredients,
substance is a toxic, addictive stimulant that affects many areas of the
nervous system.

Forms: Smoked, snorted, injected or orally ingested.

Katamine

Street names: Special K, K, vitamin K, cat valiums.

Effect: Intended for veterinary use, the anesthetic can cause delirium,
high blood pressure and impaired attention.

Forms: Injected.

Methylenedioxymethapmhetamine (MDMA)

Street names: Ecstasy, XTC, Adam, clarity, lover's speed.

Effect: Produces both stimulant and psychedelic effects for three to six
hours; may cause confusion, depression and paranoia even weeks after the
drug is taken.

Forms: Usually taken orally in tablet or capsule, can be snorted.

Rohypnol

Street names: roofies, rophies, roche, forget-me pill.

Effect: A sedative and presurgery anesthetic, drug is tasteless and
odorless but can leave a victim unconscience for up to 12 hours. Has been
used in sexual assaults.

Forms: Liquid.

Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB)

Street names: Grievous bodily harm, G, liquid ecstasy, Georgia home boy,
date-rape pill.

Effect: Used for sedative, euphoric properties and for its hormone-
releasing effects. Can cause blackouts that last up to four hours.

Forms: Liquid, white powder, tablet and capsule form.