GHB sales lead to sentences for two Oklahoma men

FDA Consumer, Nov-Dec, 1997 by Paula Kurtzweil

When a former employee of Tanique tanning salon and weight-lifting gym in Oklahoma City told customers, "Meet me out back," he wasn't trying to promote natural tanning or outdoor exercise. He was planning to sell GHB.

Illegally promoted for bodybuilding and as a "recreational" drug to produce sensations of euphoria and drunkenness, gamma hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB, is a potentially dangerous drug that can cause vomiting, dizziness, tremors, and seizures. Several deaths have been linked to its use.

Oklahoma City resident Chadrin Gibson, 23, told customers to meet him behind his place of employment, the Tanique facility, where for $240, they could get a 480-milliliter (16-ounce) supply of GHB. Sometimes, according to FDA special agent Wendell Espeland, Gibson also sold GHB in the towel room, where he hid the drug under towels.

His scheme unraveled when he inadvertently sold GHB to an informant for FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI). Those sales, along with other evidence collected by OCI, led in March to a grand jury indictment against him and his accomplice, Brian Brown, also 23 and of Oklahoma City. Their sentences, handed down in May, included a two-month prison term for Gibson and participation in a drug rehabilitation program for both men.

In late January 1996, the Oklahoma Poison Control Center informed FDA that 10 to 15 GHB overdose cases in Oklahoma City had been reported to the center during the preceding two months. There were no related deaths, but many of the people who overdosed were hospitalized. A 19-year-old woman later told Espeland that she went into cardiac arrest 15 minutes after ingesting GHB and had to be resuscitated.

In February, OCI's informant tracked down Brown and Gibson as the suspected dealers. The informant bought GHB from Gibson, who, in one transaction, was assisted by Brown. The informant then turned his purchases over to OCI.

Throughout spring 1996, Espeland interviewed Brown and Gibson's friends and acquaintances, including some who had overdosed. Espeland also monitored telephone calls between Gibson and a consenting informant, and later an undercover Oklahoma state narcotics officer.

He learned that Gibson was not only selling GHB at Tanique but steroids and cocaine, as well. OCI forwarded this information to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which oversees laws pertaining to illegal steroids and narcotics.

OCI agents arrested Gibson and Brown Nov. 27, 1996, after a grand jury for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma handed down a 10-count indictment charging them with misbranding GHB.

Brown pleaded guilty March 10, 1997, to a one-count information for selling misbranded GHB received in interstate commerce. It was misbranded because the label provided no directions for use or warnings.

Gibson pleaded guilty to one felony count of selling misbranded GHB received in interstate commerce with intent to defraud and mislead consumers. Remaining charges for both men were dropped.

Judge Ralph Thompson sentenced Brown May 7 to two years' probation, and on May 9, he immediately ordered Gibson to prison for two months, telling him it was "to shock you into reality."

Thompson sentenced Gibson to one year of supervised release and Brown to two years of probation and both men to 200 hours of community service and participation in an after-care drug program. According to Espeland, the two men had a history of drug abuse.

Though the men no longer work at Tanique, the business remains open. Its owner was never implicated in the sale of illegal drugs, Espeland said.

Agents in OCI's Kansas City, Kan., field office, continue to investigate the illegal sale of GHB, particularly in the Midwest, according to OCI special agent in charge Larry Sperl, because the agency receives a large number of injury reports from there. "It's a pretty widespread problem," he said.

FDA warned consumers about GHB in February 1997, following a resurgence of media and public interest in its use. The agency also reported that GHB abuse, accompanied by reports of GHB-related injuries--including death--were increasing, even though FDA in the early 1990s, had issued a similar public health warning and taken enforcement action against several companies and individuals.