Pubdate: Fri, 07 Jan 2000
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2000 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611-4066
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Forum: http://www.chicagotribune.com/interact/boards/
Author: Jeff Coen and Eric Ferkenhoff

DATE RAPE DRUG FINDS NEW, YOUNG MARKET

For months, Chicago detectives said, they watched as loads of industrial 
chemicals were dropped off at Charles Wagner's Southwest Side bungalow and 
gallon jugs of a clear, syrupy liquid were brought out.

When investigators moved in last month, they said they found ingredients 
for 114 gallons of gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, a drug that offers a 
groggy euphoria for $5 a capful and is best known as one of the "date rape" 
drugs used to incapacitate unsuspecting victims, who are then assaulted. 
The bust was the Chicago area's largest GHB seizure to date, underscoring 
what local physicians and police warn is the growing popularity of the 
drug, sometimes called "Georgia Home Boy" or "Liquid G."

Officials believe it is catching on with a broader and younger crowd 
because it provides the equivalent of hours of drinking in a single swallow.

In recent weeks, Chicago Narcotics Cmdr. Phil Cline issued a warning about 
the upswing in popularity of GHB, as well as Ecstasy, nitrous oxide and 
other so-called club drugs at after-hours parties in Chicago's Bucktown 
neighborhood.

But perhaps the most telling sign of GHB's threat locally is being seen in 
emergency rooms, with major medical centers across the Chicago area 
reporting a startling rise in recreational use of GHB among teenagers 
during the past year and a half. Many officials tell stories of a stream of 
high schoolers arriving for treatment after being knocked unconscious by 
the drug.

"Sometimes they're comatose; sometimes they're in respiratory arrest," said 
Valerie Phillips, emergency medical director at Good Samaritan Hospital in 
Downers Grove.

In low doses, doctors said, GHB produces an effect similar to drunkenness, 
along with drowsiness and amnesia. Higher doses can cause hallucinations.

Very high doses can lead to extremely low heart and breathing rates and 
even coma, said Dr. Alan Kaplan, head of emergency services at Naperville's 
Edward Hospital. The dangers are exacerbated when GHB is taken with other 
drugs or alcohol.

"There's a very fine line between getting this euphoric state and passing 
out," Kaplan said. "It's very hard to control and very hard to know if 
you're taking too much."

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug 
Administration, federal authorities have tied GHB use to 49 deaths since 
1995. At least six have been reported since June.

While there have been no confirmed GHB-related deaths in the Chicago area, 
local medical centers, including Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington 
Heights and Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn, say they have 
watched the numbers of GHB-related incidents climb to three or four a month 
over the last couple years.

At Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Dr. David Zull said the number 
is as high as three incidents each week.

These days, said Zull and doctors at other area hospitals, most patients 
admit to taking the drug voluntarily.

"You went from the group that would come in purposefully poisoned with it 
to this younger group that's taking it recreationally," he said. Either 
way, experts warn that the potency of GHB, which is often concocted by 
amateurs using household and industrial chemicals and recipes passed from 
user to user, can vary dangerously.

"They put whatever they feel like in it, a little bit of antifreeze or 
whatever," said Dr. Sal Abrams, director of the emergency department at 
Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village. "So what you get 
today is not going to be the same that you'll get tomorrow."

In the two years since Illinois lawmakers classified GHB as a controlled 
substance, ranking it alongside heroin and cocaine, the Illinois State 
Police forensic lab has seen a slow rise in requests to test suspected GHB 
for criminal cases.

State officials said the total number of submissions from police was 36 in 
1998. Through September 1999, the number had reached 33. State police 
analysts said the actual number of GHB seizures in the state is probably 
far higher because the lab does not test evidence for every criminal case 
involving GHB.

DuPage County, for instance, does its own testing. Carina Thomas, forensic 
scientist supervisor at the DuPage County Crime Lab, said her facility 
processed 15 GHB cases through October, up from 7 in 1998 and just one case 
in 1997.

Police say trafficking in GHB is still relatively small scale compared to 
cocaine, heroin and marijuana. Yet police said December's record GHB bust 
gives a clear sign of the drug's increasing popularity.

Charles Wagner, 41, of the 8400 block of Kostner Avenue, has been described 
by police as a supplier who allegedly took delivery of the GHB chemicals in 
55-gallon drums.

"Just by the amount he had, it shows he had a network of customers," Cline 
said. "He was supplying people who were supplying others. You're starting 
to see a pyramid effect here, and that's the first sign of organized drug 
dealing."

As evidence of GHB's threat, the U.S. Senate recently approved a bill that 
would make the drug illegal to possess, ingest or distribute, and put the 
substance under jurisdiction of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The drug is monitored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; and 25 
states, including Illinois, have declared it a controlled substance.

Police said dealers typically carry the odorless, tasteless drug in water 
bottles and sell $5 sips from the bottle tops.

"A year ago, an officer would stop someone with this in their car and they 
wouldn't think anything of it," said Chicago police Lt. John Kupczyk, whose 
team led the Wagner bust. "Law enforcement is becoming more aware of it, 
more savvy."

GHB was introduced in Europe in the 1960s as an anesthetic, but it was 
never approved by the FDA.

In the late 1980s, the substance made its way into some American stores, 
where it became popular among bodybuilders who believed it could enhance 
the effects of anabolic steroids. Soon afterward, according to police, the 
substance began to be used as one of a small group of "date rape" drugs.

In Illinois, authorities said GHB first was used as a recreational drug on 
college campuses and in small circles that participate in "raves," 
all-night parties known for drugs and fast-paced dance music.

Roy Garcia, police chief in Sycamore and the former head of the North 
Central Narcotics Task Force, said GHB's popularity has spread among youths 
as young as junior high age by word of mouth and as recipes have proliferated.

"This is middle- and upper-class America that is involved with this," 
Garcia said.

Teenagers are drawn to the drug because it mimics the effects of alcohol 
cheaply, Garcia said.

"It's a fast drunk," said Michael Cleary, chief of investigations at the 
FDA's Chicago office. "You take one capful of that, and it's like drinking 
a quick six-pack of beer. . . . But you look at the components of that 
drug, and you just shake your head. Why would anyone put that in their body?"

"I admit it's stupid," said Brian, a frequent user who would give only his 
first name. "We used it because we were drug addicts. It was fun and it was 
easy."

Brian, of the northwest suburbs, first experimented with GHB about two 
years ago at age 21. Very quickly, he said, an occasional habit became a 
daily routine.

"You take a capful and that's it," he said. "You don't have to sit around 
drinking all day."

Chicago Narcotics Sgt. Mike Ryle said teenagers frequently assume GHB isn't 
as dangerous as cocaine or other drugs, reasoning erroneously that "You can 
make this drug at home, so how bad can it be?"
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake