DANCE DRUG LINKED TO DEATH

Post mortem results will today confirm whether the illegal class B drug
ecstasy has claimed its fourth New Zealand life.

Police are treating as drugs-related the death early yesterday morning of a
20-year-old West Auckland man, and are waiting for toxicology and post
mortem results.

Also known as MDMA, ecstasy has so far been linked to the deaths of three
New Zealanders.

Aucklander Ngaire O'Neill, 27, died in October 1998 after taking the drug
while at a Karangahape Rd nightclub in Auckland.

Whangarei builder Jamie Langridge, 24, died last year at a Pakatoa Island
dance party after taking five times more ecstasy than Ms O'Neill had taken.

And last month Nelson coroner Ian Smith ruled that Dai Gerard Bowden, 32,
died in Nelson on March 18 of a self-inflicted death resulting from the use
of ecstasy.

Mr Bowden had been to a dance party the night before.

In the latest possible ecstasy-related death, the man collapsed in a
central city alleyway at 12.45am yesterday after a private party in the
city. His friends told police he may have taken ecstasy.

He was rushed to Auckland Hospital's emergency department by ambulance
after he had a cardiac arrest, but died soon after.

Ecstasy is associated with the nightclub and dance scene.

Overseas medical research has found it can produce severe health problems,
including overheating, irreversible brain damage, irregular heartbeat, high
blood pressure, anxiety, depression and acute kidney failure. It could also
aggravate existing medical conditions.

Ecstasy prompts the higher than normal release of serotonin in the brain,
giving users an extreme high for hours.

Vigorous activity, such as dancing, often encouraged excessive water
consumption.

Previous advice to ecstasy users was to drink a lot of water, but that is
no longer given because of the dangers of water intoxication, where the
body becomes overloaded with water. This causes the brain to swell,
increasing the pressure inside the skull and stopping blood flow.