Pubdate: Fri, 30 May 2003
Source: Mobile Register (AL)
Copyright: 2003 Mobile Register.
Contact:  http://www.al.com/mobileregister/today/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/269
Author: Joe Danborn, Staff Reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?158 (Club Drugs)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

CHEMISTRY KEY IN CLUB-DRUG TRIAL

The trial of a pair of Tennessee brothers in federal court Thursday in 
Mobile sounded more like a science seminar than a narcotics case, with a 
Drug Enforcement Administration chemist occupying the witness stand all day.

Authorities arrested Kevin Brown and Ronald Brown and more than 100 others 
last September in Operation Webslinger, the nation's first sting targeting 
Internet sales of the banned depressant gamma hydroxybutyrate or GHB.

The investigation -- which had its roots in nightclubs and a gym on Dauphin 
Street -- also was aimed at two related chemicals: gamma butyrolactone or 
GBL and 1,4 butanediol or BD.

GHB, also called "scoop" or "liquid X," is touted as everything from a 
bodybuilding supplement to a sleep aid to a sexual stimulant. But it also 
has commonly been used as a club drug and occasionally by acquaintance 
rapists to incapacitate their victims. Congress declared it a controlled 
substance three years ago.

The Browns don't dispute that they were selling BD, as alleged in the 
indictment. Prosecutors contend a Tennessee man who bought it from their 
Web site and ingested it died as a result.

At issue is whether BD is similar enough to GHB on a molecular level that 
selling it violates federal law, and also whether the body converts it to 
GHB once it is ingested.

The DEA organic chemist testified Thursday afternoon that after running a 
pair of tests on GHB and BD, he found that at least dozens of other 
compounds are more atomically akin to those two drugs than they are to each 
other. He also said, however, that there are "tens of millions" of 
compounds in the world, implying that a few dozen would be a comparatively 
small group.

Gordon Armstrong III, Kevin Brown's lawyer, said the case is the first of 
its kind in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and among the first in 
the country, in that the defense is challenging established government 
conclusions about the drugs involved.

U.S. District Judge Charles Butler Jr. is presiding over the non-jury 
trial. Testimony is expected to continue through Monday, after which Butler 
likely will take a few days to issue his verdict.
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