Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jan 2001
Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2001 Star Tribune
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Author: Maura Lerner,  Star Tribune

INTERNET SPREADING DANGEROUS MYTHS ABOUT 'PARTY DRUG,' STUDY SAYS

A popular "party drug" once touted as a dietary supplement is causing
comas, injuries and even deaths around the country, yet it's being
widely sold on the Internet with false assurances about its safety,
according to a report led by researchers at Hennepin County Medical
Center (HCMC).

The drug is an industrial solvent known as 1,4-BD (for butanediol),
and it has been sold on the Internet with names such as "Zen" and
"Thunder Nectar."

A popular "party drug" -- 1,4-butane -- is being sold under names such
as "Zen", "Thunder Nectar" "Rejoov" and "Serenity." And it's
increasingly showing up in emergency rooms as well as nightclubs in
the Twin Cities as well as elsewhere in the nation, according to experts.

Although Web sites and package labels have advised customers to "sleep
it off" in case of an overdose, some people have had seizures, passed
out while driving, become addicted or died because they failed to take
the dangers seriously, according to Deborah Zvosec and Dr. Stephen W.
Smith, the husband-and-wife researchers who led the study. It was
published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.

An Overdose A Week

"We're seeing about one overdose a week," said Smith, an
emergency-room physician at HCMC. And, Zvosec said, the Internet has
played a "profound role" in spreading the problem.

"[The Internet has] been the source of vast amounts of
misinformation," Zvosec, a research associate in emergency medicine,
said. "It's led people to minimize the dangers."

Dr. Stephen Smith and Deborah Zvosec, Phd. Last January, for example,
a Web site for BlueRaine, which contained BD, declared "it is safer
than table salt or aspirin when used responsibly and according to
directions."

One of the most dangerous misconceptions, the researchers say, is that
the drug is only harmful if mixed with alcohol or other drugs. That
myth is so widespread that some people who use BD by itself have told
friends not to worry or call an ambulance if they pass out.

"That's what results in deaths," said Zvosec. "People have taken it
with no alcohol, they haven't been taken to the hospital and they've
died."

Until about a year ago, the drug -- a chemical cousin of the notorious
"date rape" drug, gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) -- was openly sold
as a dietary supplement to bodybuilders and others. BD was touted as a
way to fight stress, improve athletic performance and even combat
baldness. It also was widely shared at nightclubs to induce highs.

When the federal government declared GHB a controlled substance last
year, Internet entrepreneurs switched tactics and started selling the
supplements as "household cleaners" with the same packages and brand
names, say the researchers.

FDA Warning

Almost two years ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned
the public to avoid all supplements and products containing BD.

Under federal law, people can be prosecuted if they sell GHB-related
drugs for human consumption, according to Jeffrey Paulsen, an
assistant U.S. Attorney in Minneapolis. Last month, the first such
case in Minnesota was filed against a Woodbury man and two others.

BD is legal under Minnesota law, but Attorney General Mike Hatch is
drafting legislation to restrict it, a spokeswoman said.

Millions of pounds of BD are sold legally every year as an industrial
solvent for making such products as pesticides and paint thinners.
However, Smith points out, when BD is taken internally, it turns into
GHB.

So far, more than 5,700 people nationwide have reported injuries or
overdoses from GHB-related drugs, according to the Drug Enforcement
Administration, and at least 65 have died. Two of those deaths were in
the Twin Cities since 1999, said Carol Falkowski, a drug-abuse
researcher at the Hazelden Foundation in Center City, Minn., and the
author of a new book, "Dangerous Drugs."

Today's report in the medical journal lists eight people in three
cities, including Minneapolis, who overdosed on BD during a six-month
period in 1999. Two of them in other cities died.

In one case, a 22-year-old man took a supplement called "Serenity" as
an energy boost and was found unconscious an hour later. Brought by
ambulance to HCMC, he had heart and blood-pressure problems, breathing
difficulty and incontinence, and was vomiting. He was one of the lucky
ones, though. He survived.

In another case, a 32-year-old man and his 29-year-old wife took
"Thunder Nectar" as a sexual enhancement, the authors reported. The
woman passed out within 15 minutes and woke up 7 hours later, covered
in vomit. Her husband was dead.

Some of the risks may be less known but just as dangerous, the report
says.

Some people have suddenly lost consciousness while driving, about 15
minutes or so after taking the drugs.

Others have become addicted; a few have died trying to stop, said
Smith and Zvosec.

Its legacy as a "date rape" drug has expanded to robbery. One man said
he lost consciousness after a woman offered to share her beer in a
bar; when he woke up, his wallet was gone, the researchers said.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake