One of the most common sedatives ingested at parties has been GHB (gamma-hydroxybuterate). Its use as an anesthetic was discontinued because of the high incidence of seizures and vomiting.

A central nervous system depressant, GHB is sold as a clear fluid with a slightly salty taste (often with some black specks floating in it). It is sometimes called Easy Lay and Liquid X (GHB is often sold as Ecstasy, and it goes undetected by some users even though GHB is a depressant and Ecstasy is a stimulant).

Why would a depressant be used as a party drug?

``It's not just a depressant,'' explains pharmacology professor Wilkie Wilson. ``It is a remarkable compound because it is actually a chemical that is present normally in the brain, and is perhaps used to signal information between nerve cells.

``It's one of the very few chemicals that actually can cross from the blood into the brain. ... This makes it especially interesting and dicey.''

Kits for making GHB can be purchased online, where - not surprisingly - recipes for making the drug are also provided. The drug is also pushed online as a steroid, a claim Wilson says is unsubstantiated.

Things can and do go wrong during these at-home synthesis sessions. A common result: Instead of ending up with GHB, you end up with a mixture of GHB and sodium hydroxide. If you take this, not only will you vomit, but the sodium hydroxide will burn everything it touches on its way out your esophagus, throat and mouth.

GBL (gamma-butyrolactone) is often offered as GHB. Used in many things, including industrial cleaning agents, GBL is transformed into GHB by the liver.

GHB is notoriously hard for doctors and police officers to trace and is easily concealed. The body metabolizes the drug relatively quickly, and it may be undetectable in blood samples as little as 12 hours after ingestion.

The use and abuse of benzodiazepines, a family of sedatives, are also on the rise in dance culture.

When most of us think of sedatives (or downers), we think of common brands such as Valium and Xanax. Included in this family of drugs is Rohypnol (flunitrazepam), a drug often compared to Valium (although the DEA says it is about 10 times stronger). Rohypnol is also known as ``roofies'' or ``Mexican Valium.'' It's commonly referred to as ``the date-rape drug'' because of numerous sexual assault cases where the drug was slipped into victims' drinks - usually at parties or nightclubs - leaving them incapacitated.

The damage: No physiological harm, although users run the risk of passing out

and not remembering what happened. Taking large amounts of GHB (and/or mixing it with alcohol) could cause you to end up comatose for a few hours. There's also the slight possibility of ``fecal incontinence.''

Pre-existing risk factors: Wilson warns those who have cardiovascular problems, hypertension, epilepsy or any sort of mental illness not to experiment with GHB and Rohypnol.

Dangerous combinations: Never mix benzodiazepines with other sedatives (this includes anything from opiates and nitrous oxide to cold medication). This combination carries the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular failure. Wilson lists these symptoms: drowsiness and muscular uncoordination with slurring of speech; deep sleep from which a person cannot be aroused; loss of reflexes such as eye blink, gag and withdrawal from a painful stimulus; suppressed breathing.

If you spot people with these symptoms, they're not tripping out, they're dying.

COPYRIGHT 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group.