Bay Windows - National News, September 15, 1999
Beth Berlo, Bay Windows Staff

Harry Bartel, general manager of the popular New York City dance bar Splash, died Sept. 5 at his home in Greenwich Village, from an apparent overdose of the drug. Bartel, 35, ran the club with his longtime partner and Splash owner, Brian Landeche.

Landeche, still in shock over the loss of his partner, underscored the risks of and widespread deadly misconceptions around GHB saying, "The thing that I told my staff is that Harry is the brightest person I knew. He had a genius IQ. And if Harry, if someone that bright, and that brilliant, and that healthy could miscalculate, then anybody could."

Asked how many overdoses he's seen at the club this year, Splash manager Greg Jones said, "We've seen a few, maybe three at the most."

But GHB (Gamma hydroxy butyrate) has exploded in popularity over the past several years, especially in nightclubs. Ambulances are being dispatched to Landsdowne Street in Boston on the average of two to three times a weekend due to GHB overdoses, said Dr. Michael Burns, a medical toxicology specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

"We are seeing a lot more over the summertime," Burns said. "Within the past year, there has been a mini-epidemic ù one or more per week average. It's typically Friday and Saturday nights, and [the drug] is purchased at various nightclubs in the Kenmore Square area," he said.

GHB, which used to be sold in many health food stores, and marketed as a bodybuilding supplement, has been pulled from most store shelves, but continues to sell widely ùand often illegally, since many states have banned it ù on the Internet. And because it's marketed as a natural food supplement, people think it must be safe.

Dr. Sophia Dyer of Boston University Medical Center, also a medical toxicology specialist, said though she doesn't see as many GHB overdoses as Beth Israel, she is seeing some. "Usually they come in lethargic, vomiting, or comatose, and have a slow heart rate," she said. Dyer suspects many of these incidents stem from mixing the drug with alcohol or some other drug, but said mixing is by no means necessary to produce adverse effects.

"There are recipes on the Internet, and if you're not a good cook, I don't know what would happen to you," she said. For one thing, Dyer said, "They use alkali in the preparation of GHB, and if that's not effectively neutralized, you get an esophageal burn."

One of the bigger stumbling blocks hampering medical toxicologists right now, is its lack of ability to trace GHB in lab tests. "It's hard to do [GHB] drug testing," Dyer said. "It doesn't show up in the types of testing we have. This drug is a bit of a recent phenomenon and testing is not set up. It might be difficult to get a lab confirmation of the ingestion." GHB ingredients are reportedly derived from gamma butyrolactone, sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. It looks like a clear liquid and is usually found in a small clear plastic bottles that can hold several doses. Street names for GHB include: G, Liquid E, Scoop, Everclear, Easy Lay, and Liquid X among others.

GHB's cousins are GBL and GB, Burns said. They are substances which convert into GHB in your body. Other names for these include: Serenity, Enliven, Blue Nitro and NRG3, among others.

To keep the product selling after the FDA pulls the product, Burns said, companies will alter the drug chemically, then change the name. "That's why you've got all these companies," he said. "When the FDA said GBL couldn't be sold anymore, companies would alter the drug, call it something new, then market it knowing full well that the drug is metabolized similarly to the same toxic agent, GHB. All of us have GHB in our brains. It's either a neurotransmitter or a neuromodulator."

Taking the drug, Burns said, can create a euphoric experience even in small doses. "The difference between a recreational/therapeutic dose and a toxic dose is very small," he said. "It's called a low therapeutic-toxic ratio. That means that an individual who has never consumed this agent, could take a small dose and become comatose."

Asked what kind of state most patients arrive in, Burns said, "Usually they've had a seizure. The seizures are not persistent. Most occur prior to arrival. The people that come here are people who are often not breathing. They were lying on the ground, and couldn't get themselves up. Others are vomiting and depressed. There are also people who used it 'wisely' that evening, and haven't been brought to the hospital."

The most striking and unpredictable effect of GHB Burns said, is its "rapid onset. Within 30 minutes, you can go from being a wide awake person, to not breathing."

Often referred to as a "date rape" drug, GHB can be slipped into a person's drink without them knowing. The drug is clear in color, and the salty taste of GHB is usually masked when added to a drink. The drug is slipped with the intention of making the victim become less inhibited, experience sexual enhancement ù or even pass out to be sexually molested.

In the past several years there have been numerous reports of GHB overdoses and deaths at circuit parties, which is reportedly one of the reasons that the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) in New York stopped sponsoring the Morning Party on Fire Island.

Bob Bergeron, director of HIV prevention at GMHC, runs monthly workshops specifically designed for men using GHB. "We need to keep making men aware that it can be deadly specifically when mixed with alcohol or K (ketamine hydrochloride). You can't always be clear on the dosage," he said. Bergeron said they also create material which includes GHB fact sheets and booklets, targeted toward GHB users. "These are men who are using the substance or people who know of others who die from it and still don't stop using it."

Bergeron said he's seen more men using the center's counseling and drop-in services to talk about GHB. "We're not new at this. But I do think the deaths have increased." Between 10 and 20 men average a GHB workshop at the center on any given month.

What troubles Landeche now over the loss of his partner is his fear that people will somehow invalidate their achievements together as a gay couple. "We were together 10 years," he said. "We held ourselves as each other's spouse. We had two homes together. It's a shame. I get really nervous that so many gay men never get involved in relationships and they never make commitments and just seem to wander through their lives. But I was really proud that we constantly worked out whatever it was that we had to. We set an example, and I hope that this one mistake that he may have made will not nullify all the things we did as a couple, or that he did alone."
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