MOM TO BLAST DESIGNER DRUGS

The mother of a teenage victim of Ecstasy, Central Florida's popular
designer drug, plans to speak today at a congressional hearing about
her son's death.

The hearing at Orlando City Hall, the latest in a four-year series of
sessions about the lives destroyed by drug abuse in greater Orlando,
will be held on what would have been Michael Alumbaugh's 16th birthday.

"She was really shocked when she got the letter . . . it was the day
of her son's birthday when they wanted her to come and speak," said
Patricia Hunt, a family spokeswoman, of Debbie Alumbaugh of Vero Beach.

"It's like living her experience over and over again of losing her
son, but she's willing to do it if it will save one life."

The hearing, called by U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, begins at
10 a.m. It will be in the Orlando City Commission Chambers on the
second floor of City Hall at 400 S. Orange Ave.

Mica called the hearing to investigate the spread of designer
drugs.

The opening speaker will be James McDonough, head of the state Office
of Drug Control.

Common since the early 1990s in Orlando's nightclub scene, the drug
known as Ecstasy, methylenedioxymeth-amphetamine, is a hallucinogen
that teens and young adults use to heighten their senses while dancing.

However, the most dangerous designer drug appears to be gamma
hydroxybutyric acid, according to autopsy reports and records of
nonfatal overdoses maintained by law-enforcement agencies.

Mixing GHB with alcohol and other drugs is a deadly combination,
drug-abuse counselors say.

Statewide, the ages of designer drug users has dropped noticeably in
the past two years to include teenagers as young as 15, counselors
said recently.

Last year, Orlando police recorded 56 nonfatal designer drug
overdoses. About 50 of those involved GHB.

The other cases involved Ecstasy, the sedative Rohypnol and a drug
called GBL, said Robin Heath, a civilian employee of the police drug
unit.

Between New Year's Day and March 18, police identified 27 nonfatal
overdoses. All 11 designer drug cases involved GHB. Three more were
suspected to be heroin. And the rest involved a variety of
prescription, over-the-counter and street drugs.

Outside the city limits, the Orange County sheriff's drug unit saw a
similar disproportion.

So far this year, nonfatal GHB overdoses outnumbered nonfatal Ecstasy
overdoses by three to one in unincorporated Orange County. Those 21
GHB overdoses and seven Ecstasy overdoses are overshadowed by 41
nonfatal heroin overdoses, said sheriff's Lt. Mike Miller, one of the
speaker's at today's hearing.

Heroin remains the region's most deadly illegal drug.

Twenty people have died so far this year in Orange and Osceola
counties from confirmed or suspected overdoses of heroin. Only one
death has involved a designer drug, according to the Orange-Osceola
Medical Examiner's Office.

In Brevard County, there have been two confirmed heroin overdose
deaths this year but none involving designer drugs, according to the
medical examiner's office in Rockledge.

In Seminole and Volusia counties, there are six deaths involving
confirmed or suspected doses of heroin.

Only one case, the March 31 death of a 23-year-old woman who took
cocaine, alcohol and Ecstasy, involved a designer drug, according to
the medical examiner's office in Daytona Beach.