GHB
Bill
Goes
to
White
House
2/18/00
The US House of Representatives voted this month to schedule Gamma hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB, as both a Schedule I and a schedule III drug by a vote of 339 to two. The bill, dubbed "The Date Rape Prevention Act," has already passed the Senate and now awaits President Clinton's signature. The bill will make GHB a Schedule I drug, with an exemption for Xyrem (a product being researched by Orphan Medical) which will be Schedule III. This represents a unique legal situation, as the drug will simultaneously exist in two schedules, depending on whether it is made illegally or made by a pharmaceutical company. No other drug in history has been placed in two schedules at once. The bill, it should be noted, does not directly make GHB a scheduled drug - but rather it orders the Attorney General to make GHB a scheduled drug within 60 days of the president signing the bill. As a Schedule I drug, GHB -- other than Xyrem -- will be in the company of marijuana, heroin, LSD, and other drugs which the government has deemed to have no medical use, despite research showing its promise in treating a variety of ailments, including alcoholism, anxiety, and sleep disorders. In addition, the bill calls for new penalties, including prison sentences up to 20 years for the possession, manufacture or sale of the drug. GHB, once available over the counter as a dietary supplement, gained its notoriety as a "date rape" drug when reports surfaced of sexual predators mixing it in their victim's drinks, rendering them unconscious. But Emanuel Sferios of Dance Safe, a California Bay Area harm reduction drug education group that serves the rave and nightclub community, called the legislation misguided. "The rescheduling has come with an entire anti-club drugs campaign, taking a whole group of drugs together and calling them club drugs, blurring distinctions, demonizing them in such a way that it is going to increase usage of them because it glamorizes them," he told The Week Online. "The whole notion of a date rape drug is simply a drug warrior propaganda tool. Calling something a date rape drug will only encourage their use that way. For example, we could call GHB a 'make-you-pass-out-and-steal-your-wallet' drug. There are many drugs that will disorient someone and make him or her easier to take advantage of." GHB's greatest popularity in recent years has been on the dance scene, where users found its effects similar to alcohol but with fewer side effects. Since over-the-counter sales were banned in 1990, however, GHB has been linked to 58 deaths and 5,700 overdoses, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Sferios said that GHB's rescheduling will make the drug even more dangerous to the people who take it recreationally. "Now there will be an even greater taboo about discussing how to use GHB responsibly, and the black market is going to mean that batches of GHB are going to increase in dosage level," he explained. "That's going to make it harder for people to measure their doses, which will make it more likely they will overdose. Because it's in liquid form, dealers will want to make it in stronger and stronger concentrations so their contraband doesn't take as much room." DanceSafe is on the web at http://www.dancesafe.org. (NB: DanceSafe is one of many web sites that would be illegal if the Hatch-Feinstein methamphetamine bill becomes law!)
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