Pubdate: Sun, 05 Nov 2000
Source: Greenville News (SC)
Copyright: 2000 The Greenville News
Contact:  PO Box 1688 South Main Street, Greenville, South Carolina 29602
Website: http://greenvillenews.com/index.htm
Author: Andy Paras

CLUB DRUGS FINDING THEIR WAY INTO THE UPSTATE

The idea of a higher high was enticing.

So, after drinking a few beers at a Greenville nightclub on Halloween 
night, Joseph "Cannon" Outz accepted a soda-bottle cap full of "home brew" 
from a friend and downed it with orange juice.

An hour after drinking what he would later discover was Blue Nitro, the 
21-year-old Berea resident collapsed into a seizure and began choking on 
his own vomit. He survived only after paramedics were able to restore his 
breathing.

"They gave him a 20 percent chance to

make it once they brought him back to life," said his father, Michael Outz. 
"It was terrifying to see your son lying there. His eyelids were purple 
from loss of oxygen."

In the days following the incident, the elder Outz searched bookstores and 
health stores trying to find out what almost killed his son. He would 
discover what Greenville County has slowly been learning over the past two 
years: Blue Nitro is a variation of GHB -- commonly referred to as a "club 
drug" -- and what happened to his son is becoming a weekly occurrence in 
area hospitals.

The Greenville County Coroner's office has only recently found out that 
standard drug screening doesn't detect GHB and since has confirmed two area 
deaths in the past two years were GHB related.

Local authorities say club drugs have officially entered the Greenville 
culture, invited by party-goers in their teens through early 30s who are in 
search of the higher highs as they dance to bass-driven music until the 
early morning at raves and in clubs.

"It's at epidemic proportions. It's not just a counterculture; it's 
everywhere," said Carol Reeves, director of the Greenville Family 
Partnership. "We're just now getting a wake-up call."

The trendy thing

Ecstasy, GHB and Ketamine are just a few of the drugs that have been termed 
club drugs or designer drugs. The designations come from the frequency 
they've been found in clubs and the fact that GHB and Ecstasy, especially, 
are made in labs.

Just searching for the names Ecstasy or GHB on the Internet yields 
thousands of Web sites with detailed information on everything from their 
effects, dangers and how to make them.

Emanuel Sferios, founder and national director of Dance Safe, which 
encourages education while not condoning the use of drugs, said most of the 
Ecstasy found in the United States is made in Europe.

Sgt. Mike Gambrell, spokesman for the Greenville Police Department, said 
some drugs are produced domestically. "All it takes is someone with a 
science background," he said.

Ecstasy, GHB and Ketamine are most often lumped together under one 
convenient name but they actually are different in many ways. Lots of times 
the drugs are combined with one another or even marijuana, heroin and cocaine.

Least Of Evils

Ecstasy, widely considered the least dangerous of the drugs, produces an 
enhanced sense of pleasure and self-confidence not to mention psychedelic 
effects. As an amphetamine, it also increases energy levels that allow 
users to dance all night long and then some.

Pills of Ecstasy are often imprinted with cartoon characters such as 
Pokemon or athletic team or car logos. Reeves said the culture has broken 
free from its underground status and has practically become mainstream 
through music and movies.

Sferios said the drug is here to stay. "It's a very unique drug," he said. 
"It has a very unique effect and its rapidly becoming the most popular drug."

Authorities and healthcare professionals agree that the most dangerous 
aspect of the Ecstasy, aside from the fact that the little pill the user 
swallows may not be Ecstasy at all, is that it causes dehydration and the 
body's temperature to rise, sometimes as high as 108 degrees. This can be 
especially dangerous in the hot, crowded conditions at raves.

Users sweat a lot and have to keep drinking water to replenish the liquids 
they lose. There's no hangover, Reeves said, but the user will fall into a 
depression that can last months after heavy use. Although it's not 
considered addictive, she said people with limited interpersonal skills can 
come to depend on it. The verdict is still out on the long-term effects -- 
though recent research hints that it's not positive -- Reeves said that's 
not a reason to try it.

"They're messing around with something that can come back later," she said.

Tricky Dosage

GHB, which Sferios said was given the nickname "liquid ecstasy" by dealers 
who wanted to cash in on the reputation of Ecstasy, is more of a 
psychedelic sleep-inducer and can especially be lethal when mixed with 
alcohol. Outlawed by the Congress this year, it is most common found as a 
clear, odorless and practically tasteless liquid.

Another dangerous aspect of the drug is that there isn't much margin of 
error between a safe dose and an overdose, Sferios said.

Authorities believe the inexact science of the doses and the lack of 
knowledge of users is a leading contributor to the growing medical problem.

"It's unbelievable how close these people are coming to death and they 
don't even know it," Evans said. "The sad part about this whole thing is 
the people who are using GHB are under the impression that as long as you 
leave these people who overdosed alone, they will sleep it off and 
everything will be fine. But that's really not the case at all."

Like Rohypnol, GHB is considered by the government to be a date-rape drug, 
but Sferios said he thinks that claim is greatly exaggerated. But because 
of the negative publicity the drug has brought the rave community, it has 
begun to police itself in many parts of the country, he said. "It now has a 
stigma attached to it by the rave community itself," he said.

Ketamine is primarily used in veterinary medicine as a painiller, and can 
be addictive. Fraley said he has not seen any cases of ketamine come 
through the emergency rooms of the Greenville Hospital System nor has 
Evans, the coroner, seen any cases. The drug is most often sold in powder 
form and can be snorted or injected. Sferios said in small doses, users 
fall into a dreamy state, whereas larger doses create a strong 
disassociative affect.

"Beyond raves"

All-night parties sans the alcohol may sound good on the surface to parents 
but authorities say they're often a vehicle for a growing drug culture that 
appears full throttle in movies, music and clothing.

Outside of the same Greenville night club where Outz overdosed, two young 
Greenville men say they can pretty much tell who's "rollin'" -- slang for 
being high on ecstasy -- and who isn't. But, they say, to see the real 
action it's imperative to go to a rave. "I've been to a lot of raves," John 
White, 20, said. "That's where it's all at."

Raves feature loud repetitive music and light and laser shows that 
perpetuate a user's high.

The Greenville Police Department and the county Sheriff's Office say the 
first rave appeared in the county roughly two years ago. In that time, vice 
and narcotics investigators from both departments have become familiar with 
the ways of the all-night dance parties that attract as many as 2,000 
people from all over the Southeast.

Raves are carefully watched by law enforcement but they are rarely violent 
and are legal in South Carolina.

"The situation with rave parties is that they create an atmosphere for 
using Ecstasy," said Sgt. Mike Gambrell, spokesman for the Greenville 
Police Department.

Sferios said raves -- and many of the club drugs -- have been around in 
states such as California and Florida since the mid-1980s. He said not all 
teens who go to raves use drugs and designer drugs are no longer restricted 
to raves. "Ecstasy is available and accessible everywhere," Sferios said. 
"It's not only at raves. Raves have been associated with Ecstasy, 
historically. But it has gone way beyond raves."

Raves are most often advertised through glossy fliers with 
computer-generated graphics that almost always give directions to the 
venues from neighboring states.

One thing is for sure, Reeves said, and that is that those who buy into the 
drug use and go to the raves are victims of commercialism. Just to get in 
costs $10 to $25 and water, which can cost more than twice the amount of 
beer, practically outsells beer two to one, authorities said.

"It's not about kids having a good time," Reeves said. "It's all about one 
thing -- making money."

Reeves said by selling glow sticks, which create an effect for those 
rolling on Ecstasy, and mouthpieces, which users bite on to soften the 
constant teeth-grinding and jaw-clenching the drug creates, organizers must 
know that drug use is a part of their parties.

It all comes down to parents really knowing what going on, experts stressed.

Joseph Outz and his family agreed to speak to The Greenville News for this 
article because they didn't want the same thing to happen to anyone else.

"Lots of parents, like myself, they don't know what's out there," said his 
mother, Joann Outz.
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