PLAN EYED TO FIGHT ECSTASY USE

Jan. 31, 2001 - BOULDER - A 16-year-old girl remained in critical
condition Tuesday while local school officials mull plans to attack
the party drug that put her there.

Brittney Chambers lapsed into a coma after taking Ecstasy - also known
as "X" - at her 16th birthday party Sunday in Superior. Deputies are
investigating possible suppliers of the drug and plan to make several
arrests, said Boulder County sheriff's Detective Mike Linden.

Boulder Valley School District administrators, meanwhile, will meet
with police and decide if a special effort is needed to identify and
prevent the use of Ecstasy.

"We'll probably discuss this incident with high school and middle
school principals to find out what are the precautions we have in
place," said Mack Clark, the district's deputy superintendent.

Brittney once attended Monarch High in Louisville but moved to Arizona
to live with her father and attend school there. She returned to
celebrate her birthday at her mother's home in Superior.

Clark said this was only the second reported instance of Ecstasy use
in the Boulder Valley district this year.

About 30 of Brittney's friends attended the birthday party, and she
may have gotten the drug from them, investigators said. About eight of
the girl's friends were taken to area hospitals and were treated and
released.

Brittney's mother, Marcie Chambers, was present at the party. She
declined to comment Tuesday.

Deputies fear the Ecstasy Brittney Chambers took may have been
tainted, causing the severe reaction. The tablets are being tested at
the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Linden said.

"Any illegal drug you buy on the street could be tainted with
something," Linden said. "Some knucklehead cooking this stuff up in a
basement - who knows what they put in it?"

Dennis Follett, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, said Tuesday that Brittney likely overdosed on the
popular party drug.