In Tijuana, where the bars close later than in other border cities, late can mean 3 a.m. or after.

"They sell us alcohol here and in the States they don’t," said a 19-year old woman from Escondido as she walked with friends along Avenida Revolucion on a recent Friday night. "My parents would kill me if they knew I was down here."

The woman declined to give her name.

Out on the street, streams of young people wandered from club to club. Lines formed outside some of the more popular hot spots.

Although doormen at some establishments have become more strict about requiring IDs, in many cases, any ID will do, said a 17-yearold student at Sunset High School in Encinitas who has been coming to Tijuana to binge with friends since she was 15.

Aguilar, dressed all in black, blew a referee’s whistle, pulled Jimmy’s head back and shoved an upright tequila bottle into his mouth. Jimmy’s friends cheered as the bottle emptied into the young man’s throat.

The servicing last a good 20 seconds. As a finale, Aguilar placed a napkin over Jimmy’s mouth and shook his head back and forth repeatedly as if it was a cocktail shaker. Released, Jimmy breathed deeply, hiccupped and reached for a beer.

Nearby, seemingly oblivious to the flashing lights, writhing crowd and THUMP, THUMP, THUMP of dance music, a solitary teen had passed out next to a bucket of beers.

Heavy drinking often leads to loose sex, the young woman said.

"People just get drunk and basically (have sex with) the first person they see.

In many bars "Paperos" are ever-ready to pour tequila down patrons’ throats. "Papero" is the Mexican slang name for waiters who administer the "pops" of booze.

During a recent visit to Club Maguey, Jimmy, an 18-year old from Ramona, agreed to a force-feeding of tequila by Hector Aguilar, a muscular papero.

In Tijuana’s permissive atmosphere, the peer pressure can get vicious.

Around 11 p.m., Paul, 19, a student at SDSU, was with a group of six to eight college cohorts at Señor Frog’s. Several of the young men boasted they had been drinking since noon.Paul shoved and dipped away from a papero who wanted to pour some Cuervo Gold tequila down his throat. But moments later, one of Paul’s’ companions lipped the papero some cash.

As Paul washed down the liquor with a drink of water, his companions taunted him as a "lightweight."

"If I keep drinking like this I’ll pass out," Paul complained as the guys continued to jeer.

On the crowded sidewalk, a vomiting and delirious teen who looked like an American soldier propped himself on a buddy’s shoulder. Down the street, a teen-age girl sat on the sidewalk outside a bar, trying to vomit. A crowd of locals began to gather. Finally, an anxious-looking young man picked her up. As he jogged down the street with the semiconscious girl in his arms, her eyes rolled back.

For "Shaker," a 19-year old from Chula Vista, the lure of Tijuana is beer and (sex)," he said.

"I’m an alcoholic," he said, indifferently. "I drink every day because I like the taste of beer."

At 11 p.m., inside jampacked Senor Frog’s, a pair of leather-clad girls gyrated atop a table to ear-splitting music before an ogling crowd. On a mezzanine, a group of young men in a huddle passed a joint, seemingly unintimidated by a hovering bouncer.

Jason, a 20-year old from Escondido, mingled in front of The

"We used to come down on Wednesdays because it was college night," Jason said. "We’d check out all the girls, get drunk, sleep in our cars and then go straight to school in the morning."

At first, the scene was "pretty crazy" to Jason. He recalled seeing female patrons stripping on a stage in a nightclub.

"When you’re 17 and you see all these girls taking their clothes off, you’re just, like, damn!" Jason said.

But three years of hanging on Avenida Revolucion has made Jason cautious. It’s common to see things get out of hand when a couple of drunk guys fight over women, he said.