cannabisnews.com: Aggressive GHB Policy To Be Followed in EBR 





Aggressive GHB Policy To Be Followed in EBR 
Posted by FoM on April 18, 2000 at 08:22:59 PT
By Luke Britt, Advocate Staff Writer
Source: The Advocate
Baton Rouge government and law enforcement officials on Monday announced an aggressive new policy regarding the prosecution of crimes involving the date-rape drug GHB."People out there who are using this drug and thinking it's not that serious are going to be shocked at the consequences," First Assistant District Attorney John Sinquefield said during a news conference.
Dr. John Jones, an emergency room physician, said there has been a marked increase in overdose cases in the past two years, although no specific figures are available. He said the rise in popularity of the drug -- gamma hydroxybutyric acid -- has outpaced efforts to track its use.Police Chief Greg Phares said the drug has developed a reputation as a date-rape drug because in many cases across the country it has been slipped into the drinks of unknowing women. They lose consciousness and awake hours later to discover they have been sexually assaulted.Sinquefield said the problem with GHB should not be taken lightly."There is a misconception in our community, particularly among young people, that this is not a serious problem, but you can see from the agencies gathered here today that it is very serious," Sinquefield said.The Legislature has increased penalties for people caught with GHB. Possession of GHB now is punishable by up to 60 years in prison and fines up to $600,000.The new laws also carry mandatory minimum prison sentences. The Police Department is investigating at least a dozen recent sex crimes in which GHB was used to render the victims helpless, Phares said."The victim has little or no recollection of what actually occurred. Moreover, GHB leaves the body within hours of ingestion, making it almost impossible to prove that the victim was drugged," Phares said.Officials from LSU, Southern University, the School Board and the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge were present at the press conference, with each promising to make an effort to educate the public about the dangers of GHB."I speak to kids all the time who do not think this is a serious drug, who think they could never become a victim of it," said Jane Wood of the East Baton Rouge Parish Stop Rape Crisis Center. "But I speak to a lot of rape victims who once thought the same thing." Published: April 18, 2000 Copyright © 2000, The Advocate, Capital City Press CannabisNews Articles On GHB: Doctors, Activists Battle Over GHB http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5418.shtmlClub Drugs Hit Crisis Stage Among Teens http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5416.shtmlHouse Votes to Put GHB On List of Illegal Drugshttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4542.shtmlhttp://google.com/search?lc=&num=10&q=cannabisnews+ghb+site:cannabisnews.com 
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Comment #3 posted by dddd on April 19, 2000 at 01:33:53 PT
possesion
DontArrest Me & mungojelly have said it well.But I think GHB is already a capitol,felony type crime,far more serious than a simple rape.There are rapist who are released from prison long before pot smokers/posessors are because of the draconian manditory minimum insanity................ddddP.S.I'm having trouble remembering what/where "mungo jelly is? 
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Comment #2 posted by DontArrestMe on April 18, 2000 at 12:19:04 PT
Let's have another round of applause!
Pretty soon, possesion of GHB will be a capital crime. Isn't it ironic that if someone was convicted of raping someone else using the drug GHB, the penalty for possession of the drug would probably be more than the penalty for rape. (60 years vs. 25 years to life) Even more ironic is that many people are raped while drunk yet we have no laws against alcohol or its use in conjuction with rape.
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Comment #1 posted by mungojelly on April 18, 2000 at 09:08:32 PT:
GHB is a threat to the alcohol industry.
That's what this is really about. Finding negative effects of an alcohol-like drug is not difficult -- alcohol is horrible stuff. But in fact GHB is actually probably safer than alcohol -- it's probably better on the liver, for instance -- which makes it even more of a threat to established interests. The whole "date rape drug" thing is just an unfortunate indication of how head-in-the-sand our society is about rape. No one would ever figure out some way to rape someone if it wasn't for GHB, right guys? Yeah, right. Rape is a serious problem in our society, it is not something you can sweep under the rug by scapegoating a couple of chemicals. 
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