Bars, Police Put Spotlight on Date-Rape Drug GHB

The recent arrest of rape suspect Andrew Luster is the first such case in Ventura County involving the date-rape drug GHB, which can render a person unconscious in a short period of time, local authorities say.

But the Luster case is indicative of a drug that is drawing increasing attention from law enforcement agencies, which are scrambling to find ways to control its use and alert the public about its dangers.

“I have spoken to women who feel they’ve been victims,” said Ventura County Sheriff’s Det. Brian Tiffany. “I’ve talked to women who have been to clubs and feel something was given to them. Is it a problem here? Yes, it is.”

The popularity of date rape drugs--like the clear, slightly salty liquid GHB--has prompted bar owners and law enforcement agencies around the state to launch aggressive public awareness campaigns.

In neighboring Santa Barbara County, concerned bar owners have started handing out “awareness cards” and posting warning signs in the women’s bathrooms.

And in San Diego County, officials spent $100,000 in the weeks before spring break on billboards, bumper stickers, posters and television and radio ads urging college revelers to watch their drinks.

Ventura County officials acknowledge they have had few arrests to date involving GHB, but warn that may be a factor of how hard it is to trace its use.

Authorities say GHB, once sold in health food stores and marketed as a workout supplement, stays in the system about 12 hours. All traces of the heavy sedative are usually gone by the time a victim is able to contact police, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Dee Corona, who oversees the office’s sexual assault unit.

“If a woman goes to a bar for a drink, it’s 11 or 12 at night,” Corona said. “The next thing she knows, it’s 8 in morning and she’s in someone’s apartment. By the time she gets dressed, figures out what happened and goes to police, the 12 hours have passed. Then it’s an uphill battle to prove drugs were used.”

One Ventura rape crisis center reports receiving dozens of calls in the last year from young women who say they were drugged and raped.

Other reports of GHB abuses have cropped up around the county, including one fatality.

Last summer, a 20-year-old Cal Lutheran University student died from an accidental overdose of alcohol and GHB, marking the first death tied to the drug in the county.

Two weeks ago, authorities arrested a 25-year-old Simi Valley man on suspicion of making half a gallon of GHB, worth about $10,000, out of his Delano Street home. Michael J. Calistro has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

It’s one of the first arrests on record in the county involving a GHB lab. But like the Luster case, it’s a sign of more to come, detectives believe.

“I’m hearing about this stuff more than ever before,” said Tiffany, who noted that GHB is becoming even more popular than its predecessor, Rohypnol. “Rohypnol was a lot bigger. But now, I would view GHB as the larger problem.”

Drug Can Be Easily Made

In 1999, Santa Paula saw a sharp increase in the number of cases involving Rohypnol, a small, white tablet widely sold in Mexico that can render a victim unconscious. In a four-month period, officers made 10 arrests on suspicion of possession.

But thanks in part to a crackdown on Rohypnol at the Mexican border in San Diego, popularity of the drug dipped--only to be quickly replaced with gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB. That is because GHB can be made from chemicals that can easily be obtained at home improvement stores.

In February, President Clinton signed a bill making it illegal to possess the ingredients to mix the potent drug. But because many of the same chemicals are used in popular cleaning products, prosecution for GHB possession can be tricky, authorities said.

Gail Abarbanel, director of the Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, said some online companies still sell GHB, getting around federal laws by marketing their product as a cleaning agent.

The result has meant easy accessibility for predators, who can cause a woman to slip into unconsciousness with just a few drops of the powerful chemical, also known as Liquid Ecstasy, Liquid X or Liquid E.

That is what happened to a 16-year-old Santa Paula girl a few weeks ago, said Linda Finnerty, acting director of Victims Services in the district attorney’s office.

“She remembers going to a party,” Finnerty said. “And she remembers three different faces and some flashes going off, so she knows pictures were taken.”

She woke up about eight hours later with no idea who her attackers were. To date, investigators have made no arrests in her case.

Tiffany said he has talked to about 10 other women with similar stories in the last year. In each case, time was the enemy, and medical tests for traces of the drug came back negative.

“It’s hard enough to get someone who is the victim of a sex crime to expose herself to the criminal justice system,” Corona said. “And these are people who are aware they’ve been assaulted. Now combine that with people who can’t remember what exactly happened. That’s going to really cut down on the number of women who are willing to come to police.”

Investigators say they received a break in the Luster case. Even if no victims test positive for the drug, dozens of videos from Luster’s Mussel Shoals home will be used as evidence, they say. The tapes allegedly show Luster, 36, who is the great-grandson of cosmetics giant Max Factor, having sex with women in various stages of consciousness, authorities said.

And during a search of Luster’s home, investigators also recovered what they believe are several vials of GHB.

Santa Barbara Clubs Are Warning Patrons

Investigators say Luster, who has pleaded not guilty to 40 charges of rape and kidnapping, was a regular along the popular row of college bars dotting State Street in Santa Barbara.

It’s just the latest hit for the city, which launched a vigorous anti-GHB campaign three months ago, after two men allegedly slipped the drug into the drink of a 24-year-old woman at a crowded downtown bar and she later was raped. Investigators said one assailant photographed his smiling roommate sexually assaulting the unconscious woman in the back seat of a car.

The case prompted bar and restaurant owners to team up with Fight Back, an alcohol awareness group, and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department to warn women of the drug. The campaign is called “Party Smart,” said Bob Stout, owner of The Wildcat and chairman of the Old Town Restaurant and Bar Committee.

“As club owners, we have a great opportunity to get the word out,” Stout said. “I can’t be worried about our club being labeled or anything like that. We’d rather be part of the solution.”

A framed “Party Smart” poster hangs in the women’s bathroom at Stout’s bar.

“Club drugs dubbed ‘Date Rape’ drugs have become popular substances to slip into drinks and have potentially lethal consequences,” the sign reads in bold letters. It goes on to offer tips: watch your drink, don’t accept alcohol from strangers, stay in groups.

Stout’s bar also offers lids to women customers to protect their drinks. The strategy seems to be working.

As State Street bars spilled over with customers during this week’s Fiesta celebration, female customers at hangouts Luster frequented were keeping a close eye on their cocktails.

“We’ve just decided to buy all of our own drinks,” said Nasha Harpe, 28, of Santa Barbara.

“I’d hate to be single and doing the club thing today,” said soon-to-be married Shannon Donnelly, 26, of Santa Barbara as she sipped on her cocktail at the upscale Rocks Restaurant and Bar.

UC Santa Barbara student Julia Bingham, 21, said she has already had a run-in with GHB. A close friend called her at 4 a.m. after a party, Bingham said. She was crying and said she didn’t know where she was.

Bingham located her friend and took her to the hospital, where it was determined she had been given a heavy dose of GHB. Embarrassed, the girl chose to switch schools rather than press charges, Bingham said.

“Now, if I put my drink down and walk away,” said Bingham, “then I don’t pick it back up.”

Not Yet a Concern in Ventura County

Patrons in Ventura, however, seem to have a more nonchalant attitude about the threat of the date-rape drug.

“I know about GHB and I know about the Luster case,” said Winchesters Grill & Saloon customer Becky Brown, 28, of Ventura. “But a lot of this seems overblown. I’ve never heard of anybody here using it.”

Used to keeping shop in one of the safest counties in the country, bar owners also shrug at the threat.

Owners of several popular Ventura bars say the danger locally is not as great as it is for the bustling college and tourist town of neighboring Santa Barbara.

“The bars are not doing anything, because it’s not a concern brought to our attention,” said Dominka Pilic, co-owner of Ventura’s Bombay Bar & Grill. “We just haven’t had any incidents that I know of around here. Unfortunately, that’s usually what it takes.”

That is the fear of local activists, who are already urging area bars to become more proactive.

“Sooner or later, one of these women will sue a bar and then it will change,” said Constance Bryant, rape crisis program manager for Ventura’s Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence. “But I would rather not wait until that happens. We should do something now.”

Bryant said bar owners should emulate Santa Barbara’s campaign--and go a step further by taking down the name and driver’s license number of any man leaving a bar with an obviously incapacitated woman.

“It could be something that simple,” Bryant said. “If he won’t give you his name, then there’s something wrong.”

The bottom line, local authorities say, is that club owners and pub patrons must realize that Ventura County is not immune to the spread of date-rape drugs booming across the state.

“Anyone who says it wouldn’t happen in our backyard, it’s a Santa Barbara thing . . . Let me tell you, it’s out there,” said Ventura Det. Matt Harvil, “[Luster] lived in Ventura County, after all. If he did it in Santa Barbara, he probably did it here too. And he’s not the only one with the idea.”

Times staff writer Tracy Wilson and Times Community News reporter Holly Wolcott contributed to this story.