ECSTASY PROBED IN NEW CALGARY DEATH Two women hospitalized in separate case CALGARY - As tests link a seventh Calgary death to ecstasy made with a toxic additive, provincial officials said Monday that there is no "quick fix" to the recent spate of deaths connected to the street drug. Toxicology results revealed by Calgary police Monday indicated the death of a 23-year-old student Cody Gorlick at the SAIT residence on Jan. 21 is the latest involving ecstasy made with paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA). The addition of PMMA makes ecstasy far more potent and local authorities are linking its recent appearance in supplies being bought and sold in the Calgary area with several recent overdose deaths, including Gorlick's. It's been seven days since Deborah Gorlick cremated her son but the news Monday that his death has been linked to a particularly toxic supply of ecstasy brought no closure. "Now we know it was poison," Deborah said. "I hope the people making it are scared. They've got to catch these people." Gorlick said she has been contacted by other families of overdose victims and while she isn't convinced that her son deliberately took the drug, she said there is comfort in the companionship of others who have suffered a similar loss. "In a way the news doesn't change anything. I'm going to miss him for the rest of my life. There is a big hole in our family," Deborah said. The development in Gorlick's case came as Calgary police continue to probe whether PMMA was involved in two drug-related cases over the weekend that left one man dead and hospitalized four others. A 37-year-old man died and a man and woman went to hospital after police and paramedics were called to a home on Falsby Place N.E. on Sunday morning. On Saturday, two women in their 20s from Edmonton went to hospital after consuming what they believed was ecstasy. Two other deaths in the Calgary area since last summer have been linked to ecstasy, while authorities in B.C. believe at least five deaths in that province involve PMMA. Although PMMA has prompted police and health officials to step up their warnings about the dangers of ecstasy, a senior officer said taking the drug in any form, from any source, is unsafe. "Let's not sugar-coat this. It's very simple: taking ecstasy is very risky," Supt. Kevan Stuart said. "You're playing Russian roulette." Monday Justice Minister Verlyn Olson was asked if the province will be involved in some kind of reponse to the deaths, including the possibility of starting a program allowing people to bring in their ecstasy without facing a criminal charge. Olson said a recent meeting with other provincial justice ministers showed that everyone in Canada is dealing with the problem of gangs and drugs. "We're all looking for effective means of dealing with them," he said. "I think there is a growing awareness about how prevention and early intervention and so on is a huge part of the answer. "Some of these things, they're not quick fixes where you are going to come up with a law or a check that's going to solve the problem in the short term," Olson said. Ecstasy can come as a powder, be put into capsules or pressed into pills. Drug investigators said powdered ecstasy has been consistently found in the recent PMMA-related cases - but that doesn't mean pills or capsules don't also contain the highly toxic additive. "It's not one type of ecstasy," said Staff Sgt. Mike Bossley of the drug unit. The ecstasy police have found in the fatal cases so far hasn't provided any clues about its source, Bossley added. Drug investigators arrested a man over the weekend and seized a small amount of cocaine and ecstasy, but Bossley there's no indication the drug had PMMA. Although police are encountering ecstasy more often recently, Bossley said it's difficult to know if there is more of it on the streets than in the past. One thing police did say, however, is ecstasy use has broadened beyond its origins as a drug taken mainly by younger people at all-night dance parties known as raves. "We have people 30 to 40 years of age who are taking this who should know better - they do know better," Stuart said.
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