DEATH OF SAULT MAN MAY BE 'SIMILAR' TO EARLIER DRUG DEATHS

The sudden death of a 38-year-old Sault Ste. Marie man last week is one of
"several'' over the last two years that is being investigated as pointing
to the same cause, says a local coroner. Dr. Douglas Brooks says a
post-mortem Thursday into the latest sudden death has not revealed "any
obvious cause of death,'' leading him to conduct more extensive tests.

Brooks did say, however, that ``There are continuous investigations going
on in several cases that may be of a similar nature'' to the most recent
Sault death.

Shortly before noon last Wednesday, city police and ambulance were called
to a Wellington Street East home, where a man in his 30s was suspected to
have suffered a drug overdose.

But Brooks said it is much too early to speculate whether any of the deaths
were a result of drugs.

"The speculation is that they may be (related to drugs) but I can't tell
you that for sure,'' he said. "I really don't have anything more to release
at the present time.''

The suspicious deaths of five area men and women between April and July
2000 were recently linked to morphine.

The drug was listed as the primary cause in one death, according to Dr.
Barry McLellan, regional supervising coroner with the Ministry of the
Solicitor General.

At the time of the deaths last year, Brooks took the extraordinary step of
issuing a public health a a public health alert about street drugs --
intravenous morphine and heroin -- that "may be more dangerous that the
users believe.''

Brooks said Tuesday a new alert is not necessary at this stage. "We don't
have anything concrete. Anything more than what Dr. McLellan did would be
speculation.''

Even attaching a number to the deaths being investigated would be premature
because their eventual results might reveal no link at all, he said.

"Each one of these are not criminal investigations but fact-finding -- who,
when, where, why and by what means,'' he said.

"It requires a lot of information-gathering before we can come up with an
actual cause and by what means. Until we do that, these are all undetermined.''

Toxicology results on last Wednesday's victim are not expected back for a
minimum of 10 to 12 weeks.