Samantha Reid (January 4,
1984 – January 17, 1999) grew up in the Detroit,
Michigan
Metropolitan
Area. She came to national attention after her death at the
age of 15.
In the company of three young men at another man's apartment,
Samantha and her friends, Melanie and Jessica, were offered drinks.
Samantha and Melanie asked for
Mountain
Dew - Jessica asked for a
Screwdriver (orange juice and vodka).
The young men brought them the beverages, to which they had added
either
gamma-hydroxybutyric
acid (GHB) or
gamma-butyrolactone (GBL). Samantha
complained that the drink tasted bad but drank it anyway. Melanie
stated that her face had become numb soon after, and then both of
the girls passed out. The boys at first did not think anything was
wrong, since both GHB and alcohol can cause those drinking them to
pass out if they drink too much of it and this is not usually a
medical emergency. However, Jessica noticed later that they were
having difficulty breathing. The boys eventually drove her to the
hospital, but Samantha stopped breathing on the way there. Both of
the young women were put on life-support, but Samantha died roughly
eighteen hours later.
Their three friends were found guilty of poisoning and involuntary
manslaughter, while the older man who owned the apartment was found
guilty of accessory to manslaughter and possession of GHB. They
were sentenced to 5–15 years in prison.
Both GBL and GHB have effects very similar to those of alcohol, but
are much more potent. GHB is generally diluted with water and
stored in small bottles, and the dose is usually measured in cap
fulls. Since the FDA had banned GHB from sale, most GHB was and is
created by clandestine chemists, and bottles of GHB can be diluted
to widely varying amounts. There are many cases of overdoses caused
by thinking a bottle had a lower concentration than it actually
did, many of which simply lead to the person passing out and waking
up later, often wondering why they are in the hospital. GBL is a
prodrug of GHB, but is significantly more
potent than its more common derivative. Pure GHB would have a
recreational dose of around 1/3 of a teaspoon. For these reasons,
it would be fairly easy to accidentally give someone too strong of
a dose.
Reid's death inspired the legislation titled the
Hillory
J. Farias and Samantha Reid Date-Rape Drug Prohibition Act
of 2000. This law categorized GHB as a Schedule I controlled
substance according to the
Controlled Substance Act. However,
neither girl was
date raped, and GHB is
used in less than 1 in 50 cases of drug-facilitated rapes. Both GHB
and GBL have strong and unpleasant tastes. GHB is very salty, and
GBL has a chemical, rubber-like flavor. The senators who authored
the bill have been criticized for using the media attention of
Samantha Reid's death to their advantage by framing it as a women's
issue.
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