New Party Drug Leaving Trail of Date Rape, Death; Kids Log In, Turn On To GHB
With Internet Recipes, Kits
Thursday June 1, 8:00 am Eastern Time
SOURCE: Reader's Digest
PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y., June 1 -- Ready to party after final exams last June,
three Connecticut high-schoolers spiked their soft drink with an
innocent-looking clear liquid as they headed out for a drive. Just several
minutes later, school was nearly out forever.
Staggering from the car and collapsing to the pavement, the Ridgefield teens
were found near death and covered in vomit. Rushed to the hospital, they
successfully fought for survival -- almost learning the hard way that GHB can
kill.
The new ``cooler than heroin'' party drug, gamma hydroxybutyrate is sweeping
the nation's schools and dance clubs. It makes you feel all ``warm and cozy,''
one user says. ``And there's no hangover.''
But as Reader's Digest magazine warns, a growing number of young people are
waking up to learn they've been raped or sodomized under the influence of this
dangerous depressant. And some GHB users never wake up at all.
Cheap and Easy
GHB's surging popularity is no mystery, explains ``Dancing with Death,'' a
special report in the magazine's June 2000 issue:
-- It's inexpensive -- just $5 to $10 for a one- or two-teaspoon hit.
-- It's hard to detect -- virtually vanishing from the body in 12 hours or
less.
-- It's easy to make -- with recipes and kits readily available on the
Internet, despite Food and Drug Administration efforts to shut down
these operations. "You've got a website, but where's the location?
Where's the product? These people can ship from anywhere in the world,"
a frustrated FDA official tells Reader's Digest contributing editors
Per Ola and Emily d'Aulaire.
Sold in the '80s as an over-the-counter sleep, diet and bodybuilding aid, GHB
was yanked from the market when problems were reported. Now, says former Los
Angeles narcotics detective Trinka Porrata, the drug has simply gone
underground. ``And the number of victims has increased steadily.''
Victims such as 15-year-old Samantha Reid, a freshman basketball player who
lapsed into a coma and died last year after friends spiked her Mountain Dew --
to make things more ``lively,'' one later explained -- as the group watched
videos in suburban Detroit.
Federal officials link 65 deaths to GHB over the past decade, but experts fear
there have been many more GHB-related cases, because the drug is so hard to
detect and because lab tests do not routinely screen for it.
Sex Predators' Choice
Countless cases of GHB-related sexual assault may also be going unreported,
authorities say. Predators use the drug to knock women out, leaving them
powerless to resist and unable to remember an assault. In Los Angeles, a
deejay and his roommate were convicted of drugging and assaulting ten women,
including several who later lacked any recall of the attack. The jury did have
proof, however -- the men had taken photos of their own sex sprees.
When dating, dancing or partying, ``never leave a drink alone, only drink
beverages you pour yourself and don't drink from a shared container,'' warns
Gail Abarbanel, director of a California rape-treatment center. Beware any
drink that tastes unusual, foams too much or leaves a residue on the glass,
she adds.
Many websites tout GHB as harmless. But because the drug is synthesized (from
a common solvent) in secret labs, there's no way to know the strength or
safety of any given batch. And users often dangerously take a second dose
while waiting up to 30 minutes for the first to kick in.
Its serious risks have earned GHB nicknames such as ``Grievous Bodily Harm.''
But ``rather than warning people away, the name has a certain cachet for
some,'' says Ginna Marston of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. ``'Look
at me,' users say. 'I'm on the edge. I'm dancing with death.'''
But this dance is one that young people should skip. The June 2000 issue of
Reader's Digest tells why it can be a very short trip from ``warm and cozy''
to cold and dead.
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