DETECTIVES BEGIN TESTS IN SUPERIOR ECSTASY CASE

Authorities will be testing urine and blood samples taken from Brittney
Chambers to find out what was in the 16-year-old's system when she took a
designer drug that caused her to lapse into a coma.

Detectives hope the tests, to be conducted at a private laboratory, will
shed some light on why the teenager's body reacted the way it did.

Chambers, and several of her friends, swallowed cloverleaf-shaped pills
Saturday during Chambers' birthday party at her mother's Superior home.
Chambers at first took half of a tablet, her 17-year-old brother, Preston
Chambers, told reporters Wednesday.

About 1 1/2 hours went by, then she took the other half, he said. Sometime
after 1 a.m., Chambers was in the bathroom vomiting. None of her friends
experienced a similar reaction.

The drugs got to the party through one of Chambers' friends, who bought or
obtained the pills from a student at Monarch High, authorities said.

School authorities asked reporters to stay away from the Monarch High
campus, where Chambers attended school before moving to Arizona with her
father.

Investigators are still looking into whether the pill was tainted or if
Chambers took too much of the designer drug that is said to heighten the
senses and promote euphoria. Those who have used the drug say they feel
love and empathy for others and have intense urges to hug and kiss people.

Detectives said a test on the pills will be conducted by the Drug
Enforcement Agency.

Investigators are also looking into whether Chambers had any other drugs in
her system, including anti-depressants. Sheriff's Detective Mike Linden
said Chambers has once taken anti-depressants, but it is unknown when and
what brand.

"It doesn't change things," Linden said. "It still doesn't make
distribution of an illegal drug legal."

Hospital workers told deputies that Chambers had an amphetamine in her
system, but no alcohol.

Pharmacologist Jerry Frankenheim, with the National Institute on Drug Abuse
in Maryland, said mixing ecstasy and certain anti-depressants can be deadly.

Frankenheim said he knows that some people have safely taken Prozac before
ingesting ecstasy, known to scientists as methylenedioxymethamphetamine or
MDMA.

"In animal experiments (the combination) was shown to prevent brain
damage," he said. "But people distort those findings to suit their purpose.
It has not been established in people at all. It could actually work
against them because of the dosage and timing."

Meanwhile, the girl's family and closest friends are holding out hope that
she will respond to their words and affection.

About a dozen of Chambers' loved ones spent their fifth day in the
Intensive Care Unit waiting room at Boulder Community Hospital on Thursday.
They are reluctant to talk to news media, but one family member said
Chambers' mother is not going to leave her daughter's side.