Date Rape Drug Deadly, FDA Warns

Americans should avoid a popular party drug called GHB because the concoction, often promoted to teenagers over the Internet as an aphrodisiac or an easy high, can be deadly, the government warned. Criminal investigators from the Food and Drug Administration are tracking down laboratories that illegally produce the chemical, which was banned in 1991 but is experiencing a resurgence--particularly as a “date rape” drug that, when slipped into a woman’s drink, can render her helpless. GHB is blamed for dozens of hospitalizations and at least three deaths. The drug is believed one of several that sickened dozens of youths at a New Year’s Eve concert in Los Angeles.