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>From: "Peter McWilliams" <peter@mcwilliams.com>
>Subject: GHB or not GHB? That is the question.
>Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1999 15:27:26 -0700
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>
>Hello.
>
>My letter to the NY Times, and the article that inspired it. What is not
>mentioned here is the obvious: like Carroll O'Connor, what we have is
>another parent, unable to deal with her grief (turning her daughter's room
>into a dusty shrine, for example), thinking that if she sends lots of other
>parents' children (and childrens' parents) to prison, it will assure that
>her daughter's death had "a purpose." While I sympathize with her grief, 
I
>cannot condone its misdirection, and I soundly condemn the politicians 
who
>succumb to grief-induced illogic.
>
>Enjoy,
>
>Peter
>
>===========
>
>Dear New York Times,
>
>RE: Daughter's Death Prompts Fight on 'Date Rape' Drug
>
>Once again Congress is overreacting to a drug problem of unknown gravity 
and
>by doing so guarantees the problem will only get worse. The arrogant belief
>of Congress is that if it bans a substance, people will stop using it. 
This
>is simply not the case, as evidenced by America's 13 million regular
>marijuana users 62 years after Congress banned it. All that happens when 
a
>drug is prohibited is that the government loses control of it-the drug
>becomes part of a robust black market where no government safety regulations
>are observed.
>
>This time it's GHB, a relatively harmless mild euphoriant in low doses, 
a
>safe sleep inducer in larger doses. The perceived dangers of GHB would 
be
>more effectively controlled through regulation, not prohibition. Concern
>that it might be used as a "date rape" drug easily concealed in a drink
>because it is "colorless, odorless, and virtually tasteless"? Then mandate
>GHB be sold with a distinct color, odor, and flavor added. Concern about
>overdoses because GHB is "such a powerful sedative that an error in dosage
>of a tiny fraction of a gram can cause a coma and eventually death"?
>Allowing pharmaceutical companies to manufacturer and package GHB removes
>any such harmful black-market fluctuation. Additionally, almost all GHB
>deaths involve its mixture with alcohol-a deadly combination. Laws could
>mandate placing such facts on all packaging; there are no warning labels 
on
>the back market.
>
>Congress abrogates its responsibility to health and safety by not taking 
the
>time to set guidelines and regulations for safe use. "We made it illegal!"
>they proclaim, reminiscent of Pontius Pilot washing his hands, "What more
>can we do?" The answer is, plenty.
>
>GHB is currently being evaluated in more the 15 FDA-approved studies as
>treatment for alcoholism, sleep disorders, depression, and other serious
>illnesses. To slam the door on patients in desperate need of GHB as a
>medication for the sake of a swift, politically expedient, and unworkable
>blanket prohibition is unconscionable.
>
>Peter McWilliams
>8165 Mannix Drive
>Los Angeles, California 90046
>
>=============
>
>October 16, 1999
>
>
>
>
>Daughter's Death Prompts Fight on 'Date Rape' Drug
>
>By KEITH BRADSHER
>
>GIBRALTAR, Mich. -- Students from the Oscar Carlson High School here say
>that when they go to parties these days, they try to keep an eye on their
>drinks at all times, put caps back on bottled beverages between sips and
>never accept a cup from someone they do not know.
>The precautions follow the death last January of Samantha Reid, a
>15-year-old freshman who drank a glass of Mountain Dew laced with GHB, 
an
>increasingly popular recreational and "date rape" drug that is colorless,
>odorless and virtually tasteless. Samantha's death, one of 49 linked to 
the
>drug nationwide since 1990, has galvanized an effort to crack down on GHB,
>gamma hydroxybutyrate.
>
>Two Michigan Republicans, Representative Fred Upton and Senator Spencer
>Abraham, have sponsored bills in the House and Senate that would add GHB 
to
>the Federal Government's list of the most-controlled substances, joining
>heroin and LSD as a so-called Schedule 1 drug. The House passed its bill 
on
>Tuesday by a vote of 423 to 1 with little debate. The Senate bill,
>introduced two months ago, is in committee but is also expected to win
>passage. The bills would make GHB trafficking punishable by a sentence 
of
>five years to life in prison.
>
>The bills would ban not only GHB but also similar chemical compounds,
>including some dietary supplements for body builders that can be used to
>make the drug.
>
>GHB "is easily synthesized by a lot of people who can get the recipe off 
the
>Internet," said Dr. Felix Adatsi, the chief toxicologist of the Michigan
>State Police. "It can be made in a kitchen."
>
>Small quantities of the drug produce a temporary euphoria or sometimes
>hallucinations, while slightly larger quantities produce lassitude,
>unconsciousness or even respiratory failure and death. The drug can be
>lethal in even tiny doses, or if poorly prepared. Doctors recommend that 
a
>person rendered unconscious by GHB receive immediate care by an ambulance
>crew or emergency room doctors who have been told to suspect the drug's
>presence.
>
>Samantha was an average student who loved to play basketball at Carlson 
High
>in this small factory town on the southern outskirts of Detroit. She
>encountered the drug on a Saturday night when her mother thought she was 
at
>a movie. Instead, Samantha and two other freshman girls joined four young
>men, two of whom were seniors at Carlson, and went to the apartment of 
one
>of the men to watch rented videos.
>
>Her mother, Judi Clark, was summoned in the middle of the night to the 
local
>hospital, where she found her daughter dead.
>
>"I fell asleep on the couch and was woken up by the phone at 3 or 3:30,"
>said Ms. Clark, who resumed using her maiden name after her divorce from
>Samantha's father in 1986. Ms. Clark reared Samantha and Samantha's older
>brother, Charles, now 18.
>
>Douglas M. Baker, the Wayne County deputy chief prosecutor for drug crimes,
>said that one of the young men at the party with Samantha, Joshua Cole, 
19,
>later told the police that he had secretly put GHB into all three girls'
>drinks to make the party more "lively." Cole also told the police that 
two
>of the other three young men had agreed to the plan and helped carry the
>drinks to the girls, Baker said.
>
>Samantha died a few hours later. One of her friends went into a coma but 
was
>revived. The third girl never touched her drink. All four men, ranging 
in
>age now from 18 to 26, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter 
and
>poisoning, and, if convicted, could be sentenced to life in prison. Cole 
and
>the other three young men have pleaded not guilty. Lawyers for the other
>three young men have contended that Cole was solely responsible for the
>death. Cole has denied this.
>
>Ms. Clark has turned her daughter's death into a crusade for limits on 
GHB.
>
>She took six months off from her job as a unionized construction worker
>after Samantha's death to study the drug and write letters to politicians
>seeking controls on it.
>
>Ms. Clark has not touched her daughter's room. Samantha had strewn clothes
>on her bed and floor in choosing what to wear when she went out on the 
night
>she died. The clothes are still there. So are the black lava lamp, the 
white
>strobe lamp, the posters of Leonardo DiCaprio and the movie "Titanic," 
the
>herd of stuffed animals and the piles of teen-age magazines.
>
>"I haven't even dusted," Ms. Clark said. "It's just like the night she 
left,
>except more dust."
>
>Michigan is not alone in having a GHB problem. The use of the drug has 
been
>spreading in New York, California, Florida, Pennsylvania and other states.
>According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, hospitals and
>law-enforcement officials have reported at least 5,500 cases of GHB abuse 
in
>42 states, in addition to the 49 deaths, 5 of which occurred in Michigan.
>
>Yet no one is certain of the true extent of the problem. Because GHB is 
not
>yet on the Federal list of controlled substances, the Drug Enforcement
>Administration does not actively pursue cases involving it, said E. David
>Jacobson, an agency spokesman. The agency has helped with local
>investigations in some of the 29 states where the drug is a controlled
>substance, including Michigan.
>
>GHB breaks down quickly in the body and is extremely difficult for
>laboratories to detect even before it breaks down. Only four laboratories 
in
>the country even have the equipment to detect GHB., and they can do so 
only
>if a blood or urine sample is gathered within a few hours after the drug 
is
>ingested, Dr. Adatsi said.
>
>Because kits for making GHB are illegal in Michigan but legal in many other
>states, the state attorney general's office reached across state lines 
to
>combat it.
>
>The office bought kits over the Internet from two vendors in Florida and
>Colorado last summer, then filed criminal charges against the two men and
>extradited them for trial here. They have pleaded not guilty.
>
>GHB prosecutions are, "an extremely high priority, in that this substance
>has popped up at these rave parties, and kids can't detect it in a drink,"
>said Jennifer M. Granholm, Michigan's Attorney General. Ms. Granholm added
>that she planned to speak on the subject when the nation's state attorneys
>general gather in January for a conference on Internet-related crimes.
>
>Gamma hydroxybutyrate is a highly addictive chemical compound that depresses
>the central nervous system. Toxicologists say that in precise quantities,
>with the ingredients prepared in carefully measured ratios, GHB produces 
a
>mild euphoria followed by sleep, with no hangover.
>
>But GHB is seldom prepared with clinical care or administered in precise
>amounts. Kitchen chemists use extremely caustic liquids like paint remover,
>furniture polish remover or drain clearing agents to prepare the drug,
>which, when poorly mixed, can cause severe chemical burns to a user's
>throat. The drug is also such a powerful sedative that an error in dosage 
of
>a tiny fraction of a gram can cause a coma and eventually death.
>
>Because GHB can render someone unconscious or unable to remember what
>happens next, the drug has been used for several years by sexual predators
>across the country, who put it in women's drinks, Jacobson said. But more
>recently, young people have been taking the drug more often for the euphoria
>it can produce, and in the mistaken belief among men that it builds muscles,
>toxicologists say.
>
>There is no evidence of sexual misconduct in the Samantha Reid case, Baker
>said. Her death now appears to have been an early warning for the state,
>because overdoses have become more frequent since.
>
>Eight people overdosed on GHB in one weekend three weeks ago in Ann Arbor.
>While some overdoses since Samantha's have produced temporary comas, none
>nave been fatal.
>
>While Ms. Clark has returned to work, installing heating ducts in new office
>buildings and factories, she continues her fight against GHB in the
>evenings.
>
>"I'm trying as hard as I can to make some purpose out of my daughter's
>death," Ms. Clark said. "She can't die without a purpose, or I'd go out 
of
>my mind."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>