A Date With Death

Date Rape Drug Is Turning Up On College Campuses

(CBS)  On the street, it's called Gamma-O or Liquid Ecstasy, and just a few drops slipped into your drink can make you lose control; knock you out, or worse.

Scientists call it gamma hydroxibutyrate, or GHB. First developed as an anesthetic, it is used recreationally by some people. Now, it's turning up on college campuses as a dangerous date rape drug.

College Crime Stats

How much crime is there on your campus? Click here to find out.

College student Jeannie Restituto wishes she had known about GHB, before she took a drink from someone she thought was a nice guy. She says she was sexually assaulted after being given the drug.

Last spring, Restituto had a small party at her off-campus apartment at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.

By the end of the night, the party wound down to just her and a fraternity brother from a neighboring university.

"It was just me and him and that's when he offered me a shot," recounts Restituto. She says she didn't know the shot was GHB.

She drank it and, she explains, "It felt like somebody was just holding my hands and feet down, like I couldn't move. They were heavy. My eyes were hard to keep open."

The next thing she remembers is waking up around 6:30 a.m. naked in her bed and hearing th fraternity brother and one of his friends. "I...just laid still. I didn't want him to know I was awake. And he lifted the sheet to show his friend, I guess."

Restituto is convinced she was raped that night.

But the Omaha police weren't so sure about her story. The man in question told them they had consensual sex and that Restituto willingly drank his GHB. The prosecutor says there wasn't the evidence to charge him with rape.

Trinka Porratta is a retired Los Angeles detective. She believes there is a lack of knowledge about GHB in the law enforcement community. "I consider it the most dangerous drug I've encountered in 25 years as a cop." she says.

With increasing abuse on campuses and deaths on the rise, she is now on a crusade, teaching cops and prosecutors about GHB.

Although Esther Duvon wasn't raped, GHB has foreve changed her life.

The nightmare began at a college bar in northern California. There, Duvon and her longtime friend Genevieve Squires met another friend and 33-year-old Victor Pelayo.

Duvon says she noticed Pelayo sipping a bluish liquid throughout the night - she later found out it was GHB.

Ask the 'Safe' Questions

Are you looking for the right college? Before you hit the road, print out this list of safety questions and carry them with you on your campus visits.

That night they went to Pelayo's house.

At around 2 a.m., Duvon fell asleep in a bedroom leaving Squires alone in the living room with Pelayo.

In the morning, Duvon found her best friend lying unconscious on the living room floor. "I started getting really afraid 'cause I couldn't tell if she was breathing or not and so I went to go get Victor," she remembers. "I said, 'There's something really wrong with her.' And he said, 'No, it's just what I gave her you know, puts you in a trance, and she'll be fine, she'll come out of it.'"

Duvon says Pelayo told her he gave Squires "liquid ecstasy," or GHB.

Duvon had Pelayo call 911 while she performed CPR. "Her tongue is swollen up in her mouth and I'm breathing into her mouth. And I just started begging her…begging her because I felt her presence still in the room," she says. "And, she, the air comes back into my mouth. And at that moment, I knew she was gone."

Sound Off!

Is GHB use out of control? Post your opinion on the 48 Hours bulletin boards.

Genevieve Squires was dead at age 22. She had more than six times the lethal dose of GHB in her system.

"We wre basically investigating a suspicious death at this point," says Homicide Detective Dave Knopf, the duty officer the morning Squires died.

Knopf brought Victor Pelayo in for questioning but Pelayo said Squires willingly drank his GHB.

According to Pelayo's story, Genevieve Squires took one big gulp right after they got home. And he had unprotected sex with her some 20 minutes later.

But the science on the drug suggests that Squires might have been out cold and starting to die within just several minutes of drinking the massive amount of GHB that was found in her body.

"I don't think that she was in any condition to give consent at that point," says Knopf.

But there is no way to prove whether Squires consented to sex or not.

Pelayo was never charged with rape. He admitted the GHB was his and he pled no contest to charges of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to one year in county jail.

Esther Duvon is still trying to come to terms with the events of that night. "You trust your friends that you go out with to protect you," she says. "You don't think your friends are going to harm you...you don't believe your best friend is going to end up dead."

Main Story: Campus Insecurity