Briefly in the news

Laguna Beach police arrested a Newport Beach man Monday on suspicion

of giving the drug known as GHB to another man, who drank the knockout

drug and died, officials said.

Timothy Knight, 33, of Scottsdale, Ariz., did not have a pulse and was

in cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived at a room in Laguna Brisas

Hotel and Spa about 7:30 a.m. Monday.

Jeffrey Christian, 35, of Newport Beach, who was with Knight and

40-year-old David Waring of Scottsdale, told paramedics that he and the

others had taken gamma hydroxybutyrate, police said.

Christian was arrested on suspicion of providing or selling a

controlled substance, police said.

All three men were taken to hospitals, and Knight was pronounced dead

at South Coast Hospital, officials said.

Waring, who was unconscious when paramedics found him, was released

from the hospital after several hours in observation. Christian was also

released after a doctor’s examination, police said.

Deaths from GHB are not uncommon, said Laguna Beach Police Capt.

Dwight Henninger. Christian probably did not pass out because he said he

did not drink alcohol, he said.

“It seemed like the others were drinking,” he said, “and that’s

usually a lethal combination.”

Christian was released Monday after he posted $25,000 bond.