posted August 07, 2000 10:20 AM         

By MICHELE MCPHEE
Daily News Staff Writer

he NYPD is cracking down on a potentially deadly designer drug called GHB, a so-called libido booster sold for $5 to $25 a capful at nightclubs.

Earlier last week, Queens narcotics detectives arrested four people for allegedly selling GHB � gamma hydroxybutyrate � over the Internet, the first time someone was busted in the city solely for selling the homemade elixir.

Bottles of Verve, a form of GHB.
The drug � which has been illegal only for six months � also is being eyed in the death of a 21-year-old college student who collapsed at a Manhattan nightclub two weekends ago, police said.

"It's a dangerous drug," said Asst. Chief Charles Kammerdener, commanding officer of the NYPD's narcotics division.

"We've been looking at the Internet for about a year. GHB sellers are being seriously looked at."

An investigation into the Queens-based Web site began in March, when an Illinois woman overdosed on the drug purchased by her boyfriend at www.invigorating.com.

Illinois cops called the 108th Precinct after a shipping label recovered from a bottle of Verve was traced back to Long Island City, Queens.

City detectives and investigators from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration launched a three-month online investigation, ordering nearly 2 gallons � worth about $2,000 � of the colorless, odorless, tasteless liquid online, Kammerdener said.

The Web site charged $39.99 for a 16-ounce bottle and $950 for a case with a dozen 32-ounce bottles, he said.

Some call it a sex enhancer, saying users lose their inhibitions. Others have described it as a date-rape drug.

Kammerdener called the GHB takedown unique because the four suspects also were running a legitimate vitamin and health Web site, www.fitnessbuff.com, even while shipping GHB under the names Pina Colada, Verve and Dream On around the country.

"Some of our other arrests for designer drugs have been of individuals working out of their homes. This is the first time we have what appears to be a reputable business selling illegal drugs," Kammerdener said. "This is the first time individuals have been arrested just for selling GHB."

Kammerdener said the group made most of its money from GHB and had more than $270,000 in a checking account seized by cops.

On Tuesday morning, cops arrested Scott Ansaldi, 24, the owner of the Web sites, and Mitchell Dufalno, 19, at the business' Queens office. Both men also live in Queens.

John Goetz, 28, of Long Island, and his girlfriend, Claudine Dematos, 23, of Manhattan were busted at her E. 34th St. apartment, cops said. All four were charged with possession and sale of a controlled substance.

The arrests came a week after James Weist, 21, a college student visiting New York from John Hopkins University in Baltimore, died at Twilo, a Manhattan nightclub.

Weist had taken GHB at the club, police sources said. His autopsy still is pending, a spokeswoman for the city's medical examiner's office said.

Last September, Harry Bartel, co-owner of the Chelsea hot spot Splash, died in his Greenwich Village apartment after overdosing on GHB.

Last March, more than a dozen people fell ill, and two women went into respiratory failure, after slamming back shots of the drug at an upper West Side birthday bash.

The city's Poison Control Center could not say how many people have overdosed on GHB in New York City because it is included in a broader category of accidental drug poisoning, said Dr. Lewis Nelson. The DEA has documented 60 deaths nationwide related to GHB as of January.

"It is effectively a sedative, and in some ways it's like Valium," said Nelson, an emergency room doctor at Bellevue Hospital. Nelson said he sees a constant flow of club kids admitted because of the effects of GHB.

"A little bit of it may make you feel a little giddy," Nelson said. "Too much can cause respiratory depression and other life-threatening events, such as coma."

GHB came on the scene in the early '90s as a dance drug at music-blasting rave parties. Before its use as a designer drug, GHB largely was sold over the counter at health food stores to bodybuilders who wanted to reduce fat. The Food and Drug Administration yanked the drug off the shelves in 1990. President Clinton signed legislation making it illegal to sell GHB in February.

Still, there are dozens of Web sites that sell GHB and even post recipes on how to make it.

What is GHB?

Name: GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate)

Nicknames: Grievous Bodily Harm, Easy Lay, Gook, Gamma 10, G, Liquid X, Liquid E, Liquid G, Georgia, Pina Colada, Dream On, Home Boy, Soap, Scoop, Salty Water, Somatomax, G-riffick, Cherry Meth, Fantasy, Organic Quaalude, Nature�s Quaalude, Zonked

Forms: Slightly salty, clear liquid sold in small bottles; also appears as capsules or grainy, white or sandy-colored powder; sometimes the powder is dissolved in water or alcoholic beverages.

Short-term effects: A depressant of the central nervous system, GHB produces intoxication followed by deep sedation, lasting from one to three hours.

Physical reactions: Nausea, vomiting, delusions, depression, vertigo, visual disturbances, seizures, respiratory distress, loss of consciousness, amnesia, coma, death (especially when combined with alcohol or other drugs)

posted August 07, 2000 11:14 AM            

I'm ready for it to be off the market. There are too many dumbasses with this drug. Its not like pot where if you smoke too much you are floored for awhile. Its too easy to screw up with G. You can't drink alcohol on it, you shouldn't drive on it, you can put it into someones drink and take advantage of them, if you mix it with coke or other drugs its very easy to OD. YOU CANNOT O-D ON GHB OR GHB ALTERNITIVES. You will throw up before O-Ding on GHB. You might choke on your puke, if you are laying down(Ask Jimmy Hyndriks), but your body will shut down (sleep,pass-out, coma) and remove the excess (puke) before you can OD. Too many people with access to G and no knowledge on how to respect the drug properly results on articles posted above. I believe that the people with no understanding of what GHB is, should not be allowed to have access to it.

So for getting off the open market, great. The people who know what they are doing(most of the time) will ALWAYS have access to GHB no matter how much the goverment tries to shut it down. If it was used for what it was intended, I say let them sell it on supermarket shelves. Thats just not the case.

posted August 11, 2000 12:35 PM            

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6 gauge in my tongue,
22 gauge in my ass...