Pubdate: Fri, 28 Apr 2000
Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Copyright: 2000, The Columbus Dispatch
Contact:  34 S. Third St., Columbus, OH 43215
Website: http://www.dispatch.com/
Author: Dean Narciso

GHB IS 'THE HOT NEW DRUG'

Overdoses Involving Youths As Young As 13 Have Been Reported

The clear, odorless liquid spilled from the small glass vial into Niki
Filoso's drink.

Moments after drinking it, she was slumped in the corner of the room,
paralyzed in fear as the spiders attacked her.

The terrifying hallucination that "G" produced is one Filoso said she
won't soon forget.

"I only did 'G' once and I'll never do it again," said Filoso, a
third-year Ohio State University student.

"G" is a street name for GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate, the liquid
form of Ecstasy. It's a central nervous system depressant that young
people are using to produce euphoria and heightened sensations.

The drug is sweeping college campuses and, medical experts say, being
used by children who are barely teen-agers. It is cheap, readily
available and easy to slip into drinks, making it a common nightclub
- -- and even date-rape -- drug.

For Filoso, a 22-year-old majoring in German, the experience last year
was voluntary -- the low point of a frenzied six months when she
experimented with a virtual pharmacy of street drugs.

Earlier this week, Filoso sat with friends at a coffee bar on N. High
Street to talk about her experience.

A block away on E. 15th Avenue, Joseph Upshaw, 22, was found dead last
Friday in the Delta Tau Delta fraternity house.

An anonymous caller to 911 that morning said Upshaw -- an OSU
engineering student from the Dayton suburb of Kettering -- had taken
an overdose of GHB.

Police, school and fraternity officials and Upshaw's parents are
awaiting toxicology results, due in about two weeks, to determine what
killed him. A preliminary autopsy by the Franklin County coroner's
office showed no obvious cause of death.

The 911 call and the popularity of the drug make GHB a
suspect.

"It's just the hot new drug right now," said Dr. Peter D. Rogers, who
has treated teens as young as 13 for GHB overdoses at Children's Hospital.

Thousands of emergency-room visits and at least 49 deaths have been
attributed to GHB abuse nationwide, Rogers said.

Filoso said that even the recommended dosage -- half a vial -- was too
much for her.

"It zaps your neurotransmitters," she said. "I curled up in the fetal
position and started crying and rocking back and forth."

Her fear of spiders intensified, she said, and her body could not ward
them off as she cowered in her apartment with a friend.

The terror subsided after about 90 minutes, but the experience
continued to haunt her.

For weeks afterward, she said, "I could not regain any sort of
happiness. I was a wreck. I was most of the time a blob of tears." Her
family doctor eventually prescribed a mood-controlling drug, which
Filoso said helped her.

Filoso and her friends said GHB is cheap -- about $5-$10 a dose --
easy to find and effective.

"It tends to bring you up and make you really happy, like nothing can
bring you down," said a friend sitting with Filoso. He did not want to
be identified.

Unfortunately, Rogers said, GHB is "extremely potent" when mixed with
alcohol. And home kits to produce the liquid Ecstasy can be purchased
off the Internet, he said.

However, in March, lawmakers passed a bill to make GHB a controlled
substance in Ohio, meaning its sale or distribution without a
prescription would be illegal. Gov. Bob Taft is expected to sign the
bill into law in May.

Leslie Gagne, a therapist at Northwest Counseling Services who
counsels schoolchildren, said, "Overall, I still worry much more about
alcohol and pot usage. Even among young people, I think they know that
they're taking a significant risk" in using chemical
derivatives.

Trace amounts of GHB, a naturally occurring substance, can be found in
the brain, said James Ferguson, the Franklin County coroner's chief
toxicologist. Larger amounts are easy to detect, he said.

Members of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity repeatedly have declined
comment on whether there was drug use at the house when Upshaw died.

Upshaw's stepfather won't say what he's been told by his son's
fraternity brothers and friends.

"It's always so easy to do a rush for judgment. Until everything comes
back (from the coroner), we don't know," said Gary Woodley of Kettering.

David Williams, OSU's dean of student life, said the university has
begun investigating possible violations of the student code of conduct
by the fraternity. "At this point we haven't anything to verify that
that drug was involved."

The Food and Drug Administration has said other drugs are being sold
under the GHB label. Bob Gagne, a Minnesota consultant who works with
the FDA and is not related to Leslie Gagne, said an industrial
solvent, gamma butyrolactone, is commonly mistaken for GHB.

The lesser drugs are no less dangerous, but are cheaper and easier to
obtain, he said. "Why bother to make bread when the flour will do?"

Williams said OSU provides counselors and literature for students
seeking help with drug abuse. However, those services are more
accessible to students living in dorms than off-campus, he said.

"We probably do a better job from their eyes because we see them, we
know them, we watch what happens to them."

Dr. Richard Nelson, medical director of OSU's emergency department,
said that about one patient a week is treated for GHB-related
complications at the hospital. Generally, the patient is monitored
until the drug's effects wear off.

"I wouldn't call it an epidemic," Nelson said.

Filoso and her friends said they'd be hesitant to call paramedics if a
friend passed out from the drug for fear police might arrest someone.

"If you are in a drug haze, you don't want to call meds," she said.
"You don't want to draw attention to it.

"They're still breathing, they're not choking on their own vomit, so
they must be OK."

Nelson cringes at such remarks.

Generally, law enforcement doesn't get involved in overdose cases that
come to a hospital's emergency room, he said.

"If somebody came in overdosing on any illegal drug, even heroin or
cocaine, in our opinion that's a medical matter," Nelson said.

Not seeking treatment "would be a terrible decision."
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