Pubdate: Wed, 19 Jan 2000
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2000 Detroit Free Press
Contact:  http://www.freep.com/
Forum: http://www.freep.com/webx/cgi-bin/WebX
Author: ASSOCIATED PRESS

ABRAHAM FORMS PANEL TO FIGHT DATE-RAPE DRUG

U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham is creating a Michigan task force to get
more information about date-rape drugs to the public, especially to
girls and women.

The task force will warn people who make, sell or slip the drug to
unsuspecting victims that "your time is up," Abraham, an Auburn Hills
Republican, said Tuesday.

Judi Clark, whose 15-year-old daughter died after the drug GHB was
slipped into her soft drink at a party last year, will help the task
force's education efforts.

"My fight is to give meaning to her death," Clark said. "No more girls
should have to die from drinking soft drinks."

GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate, is a tasteless, odorless
substance.

A person who consumes a drink laced with a few drops of GHB may lose
consciousness within 20 minutes, and wake up later with no memory of
what happened.

The drug can be hard to trace, typically leaving the body within 24
hours.

Since 1990, at least 32 deaths have been linked to GHB, and more than
3,500 overdoses have been recorded, according to the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration.

In Dearborn, police began looking into the drug after Clark's
daughter, Samantha Reid of Rockwood, died in January 1999, said Police
Chief Ron Deziel. 
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