BAD RAVE DRUG HAS TEEN ON LIFE SUPPORT

A 15-year-old North Vancouver girl was in critical condition in St. Paul's
Hospital Tuesday after taking what she thought was ecstasy at an Easter
weekend rave party.

Vancouver police Constable Anne Drennan said Tuesday the teenager was
"marginally better," but remained in a difficult situation. "It's believed
that she is on life support," Drennan said.

Police were uncertain exactly what the teenager consumed.

"There were a number of different drugs in her system," Drennan said.

Officers on duty at the rave early Sunday morning noticed the teenager and
a friend who appeared to be intoxicated. Drennan said officers found the
teenagers had dilated pupils and they admitted they had taken what they
thought was ecstasy.

Police called the teenagers' parents and began searching for the older
sister of one of them, but one girl began suffering seizures and possibly a
heart attack, and an ambulance was called to take her to hospital.

Drennan said Tuesday that consumers of ecstasy are often swallowing a
chemical cocktail of other substances that dealers pass off as the stimulant.

"It's difficult to know exactly what she consumed," Drennan said. "The
so-called ecstasy that is out there is very rarely pure."

She said police are attempting to learn where the girls obtained the drugs.

In 2001, two persons died from ecstasy overdoses while attending a rave
party at the Pacific National Exhibition.