Pubdate: 4 Mar 1999
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer (PA)
Copyright: 1999 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www.phillynews.com/
Forum: http://interactive.phillynews.com/talk-show/
Author: Amy S. Rosenberg

A.C. POLICE REPORT DANGER OF A TRENDY DRUG AT CLUBS

ATLANTIC CITY -- The music is a bass-filled techno style, booming and
intense, with laser light shows.

The all-night clubs are packed.

The parties can last for days. And in the midst of this, reports an
Atlantic City police detective, are "a staggering amount of grown people
sucking on lollipops."

Lollipops?

That is a signal, apparently, that the person has ingested a trendy
narcotic concocted from cat tranquilizers and a so-far-legal herbal
nutritional supplement that converts in the bloodstream to an illegal
substance.

The other signal -- for at least eight men in Atlantic City in the last six
weeks and probably, police believe, lots more -- is falling into a comalike
stupor that can last for hours.

Vice officers in Atlantic City have taken to hanging out in all-night
clubs, notably Studio Six and the Brass Rail, that have been hosting the
intense dance parties known as raves.

On Sunday, two men were taken to the Atlantic City Medical Center after one
of the officers saw them fall unconscious at Studio Six. Their heartbeats
were erratic and their pulses weak. They woke up several hours later with
few side effects, according to police.

That evening, police raided a home on South Delancy Place and arrested two
other men cooking ketamine, the cat tranquilizer. The two men -- Marc
Summerson, 23, of Mays Landing, and Michael Edwards, 26, of Berlin -- were
arrested and charged with manufacturing and possessing flunitrazepam, the
substance in the tranquilizer. Summerson was released after posting $500
cash bail, and Edwards remained in custody.

Police said their surveillance at Studio Six over the weekend led them to
the home where the men were arrested. Atlantic City Vice Capt.

Joseph Fair said the cooked ketamine, known as Special K, is being combined
with narcotics known as Ecstasy and GBL, a dietary supplement that is
converted into the drug GHB, or gamma hydroxy butyric acid, when ingested.
The combination can act as a hallucinogenic and sexual enhancer, police say.

In January, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning that
people should not consume a chemical widely sold in health-food stores and
over the Internet that has been linked nationwide to one death and 54 cases
of severe reactions, including seizures and comalike states.

The state Senate Judiciary Committee is considering banning these dietary
supplements that convert into illegal drugs in light of six other overdoses
since January. The drugs are dangerous when combined with alcohol, which
has resulted in bottled water being the drink of choice in the all-night
clubs, according to police.

Barber said the men and women in their 20s are coming to Atlantic City from
other parts of New Jersey and from Philadelphia for the parties. Studio Six
and the Brass Rail Bar, two of several all-night clubs, are owned by
Atlantic City Councilman John Schultz, who was out of the country and
unavailable for comment yesterday.

Police said Schultz has been cooperating with them and has installed video
monitoring. Although the drug GHB has been called a "date-rape drug" --
secretly dropped by one person into another's drink -- the overdoses in
Atlantic City have been in people who willingly ingested the substances,
according to police. The supplement GBL, or gamma butyrolactone -- sold
under brand names such as Blue Nitro, Renutrient, Revitalizer and Gamma G
- -- is advertised as a muscle builder, stress reducer and sex-drive enhancer.

Police and local medical personnel are warning users that they could fall
into a comalike state for hours, leaving them vulnerable to sexual assault
and the possibility of choking on their own vomit. 
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MAP posted-by: Mike Gogulski