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. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart