GROUP SOUNDS ALERT ON TEEN INTEREST IN DESIGNER DRUGS

POWAY -- Looking back, the girl's father said, he saw signs of trouble.

First was her obsession with her weight, the dietary supplements with
ephedrin, the manic workouts and the swings from uncharacteristic
boisterousness to exhaustion.

The dieting and workouts began a year ago. By late November, the girl was dead.

"She was so concerned about her body," said the father, who did not want
his name used because of a pending investigation into his daughter's death.

Young people nationwide are overdosing with increased frequency on designer
drugs -- cheap drugs they buy across the border, on the Internet, or ingest
unwittingly in a drink or from the hand of a friend at a party.

Last night, a community group alarmed by the rise in reported designer drug
use, overdoses and two deaths in North County within the past two months,
held a meeting to alert parents.

On Jan. 4, a Mt. Carmel High School student died after ingesting a designer
drug at a party Dec. 26.

"Designer drugs are tough," said San Diego police Sgt. Bob Baird of the
department's juvenile services team. "You never know for sure what you're
getting. You don't know how strong it is. . . . Unfortunately, one of the
side effects is death."

At the meeting, sponsored by the Safety Wellness Advocacy Coalition in a
community room at the Creekside Plaza in Poway, Dr. Shawn Evans of Scripps
Memorial Hospital briefed parents about the dangers of designer drugs.

Among the "club drugs" that have grown popular in North County are gamma
hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, and ketamine hydrochloride -- central nervous
system depressants that are used as sedatives and muscle relaxants.

Michael Zepeda, 17, a senior at Rancho Bernardo High School and a youth
member of the group that held the meeting, said GHB, Ecstasy and other
designer drugs such as Soma, also a muscle relaxant, are used by teen-agers
throughout North County.

Soma and GHB, which can be ingested as a liquid, often are slipped into a
drink and used as date-rape drugs, he said.

Traci Barker-Ball, a mentor teacher and counselor at Poway High School,
said the two recent deaths did not come as a surprise. In a separate
incident, two teen-age girls were hospitalized after they ingested Soma at
a football game.

She said some students have told her that Valium and Vicodin are replacing
Soma as drugs of choice.

With access to the Internet and the border, cheap drugs are easy to come
by, she said.

The father of the girl who died in November said she died after combining
steroids and Soma in the gym. Following the advice of others, she used Soma
to relax her muscles after a workout, so she could work on the same muscle
groups day after day.

The workouts led to parties and more drug abuse, he said.

"It's a mess," he said. "It's a complete mess."