Pubdate: Thu, 01 Jun 2000 Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL) Copyright: 2000 Orlando Sentinel Contact: 633 N.Orange Ave., Orlando, FL 32801 Fax: (407) 420-5286 Website: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ Forum: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/interact/messageboards/ Author: Henry Pierson Curtis 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Allan Wilkinson