WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Emergency room visits related to "club drugs" -- GHB, Ketamine, LSD and Ecstasy -- remained stable or headed downward in , according to a new report for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). 

 

The report, "Club Drugs, Update" shows that emergency room visits associated with GHB declined by one-third between and ; visits involving LSD declined rapidly between and ; visits involving Ecstasy (MDMA) remained at levels; and Ketamine-related visits remained at the low levels seen since .

   

The report is based on SAMHSA's Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) that

collects data on drug abuse-related visits to emergency rooms from a national

sample of non-federal hospitals with emergency departments.  DAWN does not

reflect usage of a substance, but visits to emergency rooms because of drug

use.

  

 "While the trend news is good, too many young people still put their lives

in danger," SAMHSA administrator Charles Curie said.  "Club drugs are

dangerous, addictive and illegal.  Their use can result in serious health

consequences, even death.  It appears more and more young people are heeding

this message and abandoning use of these destructive substances."

   

Club drug-related emergency room visits more than doubled from to

, but were and are relatively rare -- constituting 1.2 percent of the drug

abuse-related emergency room visits reported in (8,127 visits).

   

The new data are a sharp reversal from , when GHB-related emergency

room visits had risen from less than 60 in to 4,969 in .  Ecstasy-

related emergency room visits had risen from more than 250 to 4,026 between

and .  Even Ketamine, the least-frequent club drug reported in emergency

room visits, grew from 19 to 260 visits between and .

   

Between and , emergency room visits associated with GHB declined

by one third from 4,969 to 3,330; Ketamine-related emergency room visits

remained at very low levels; and LSD-related visits reached a new low,

dropping from 5,126 visits in to fewer than 900 in .  While Ecstasy-

related visits have not had a statistically significant decline, they have

stabilized from to after rising between and .

  

 In , at least one other drug was present in the majority of emergency

room visits involving GHB (84 percent); Ketamine (80 percent); LSD (77

percent); and Ecstasy (72 percent).  Some of these visits involved multiple

club drugs, but frequently club drugs were used in combination with alcohol,

marijuana, cocaine and heroin.

    Most of the patients in club drug-related emergency room visits were under

age 26.

   

The report can be accessed at http://www.oas.samhsa.gov.

 

Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration