Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jul 2002
Source: Deseret News (UT)
Copyright: 2002 Deseret News Publishing Corp.
Contact:  http://www.desnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/124

DATE-RAPE DRUG CLEARED FOR NARCOLEPSY USE

WASHINGTON - A version of the date-rape drug GHB significantly helps a 
dangerous complication of the sleep disorder narcolepsy, the government 
ruled in deciding that certain patients now can buy it.

But the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the version named Xyrem 
late Wednesday came with some of the most severe restrictions ever imposed 
on a medicine. The agency's move, nevertheless, carves out a single medical 
use for an otherwise illegal chemical.

Throughout the 1990s, the government had cracked down on illegal GHB use - 
abused as a party drug, sex and athletic enhancer and, because it can knock 
people out, a date-rape drug. Several dozen deaths are blamed on the 
chemical. But GHB was hard to stop because it was easy for people to mix up 
with some common chemicals.

Now the maker of the FDA-approved version, Orphan Medical Inc., will have 
to balance how to get GHB to patients while at the same time not letting it 
fall into the wrong hands.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart