ECSTASY DEATHS SPARK HEALTH ALERT

Three ecstasy-related deaths, including two young men in the days
leading up to Christmas, and dozens of alarming ER visits have health
officials warning Calgarians about the dangers of the street drug.

Police are still investigating the two most recent deaths - both men,
aged 18 and 25, believed to have died after taking the drug last week.

And on Thursday, Alberta Health Services issued a warning to the public.

"People need to be aware of the extreme danger of ingesting this
drug," said Dr. Judy MacDonald, medical officer of health for AHS's
Calgary zone.

"Ecstasy is not only capable of making people very sick, but this
drug can kill."

The deaths come less than a month after a Calgary teen overdosed on
ecstasy at a house party in the north-west. Alex Kristof, a Grade 11
student at Queen Elizabeth High School, was taken to the hospital
after taking the drug. He died there a few days later, on Nov. 30.

New details emerged Thursday about the circumstances surrounding
Kristof's death.

Dr. Mark Yarema, medical director for the Poison and Drug Information
Service, confirmed that several people who had attended a house party
last month had been treated in hospital after taking ecstasy.

Several "individuals involved in a house party had taken one ecstasy
pill and those individuals were subsequently treated and released,"
Yarema said. "The individual who died had taken eight ecstasy pills.
. . . (He) arrived with a very elevated temperature and died several
days later."

Since April, Calgary emergency and urgent care departments have
treated more than 100 people for ecstasy-related health concerns.

Although officials couldn't confirm if concerns related to ecstasy
are be-coming more frequent, Yarema said the cases he has seen are
getting worse.

"What we're noticing is that the se-verity has increased," said
Yarema, who also works as an ER physician.

Patients who have an adverse re-action to the drug exhibit a range of
symptoms, from psychotic behaviour, hallucinations and agitation to
seizures and elevated body temperatures that can lead to organ
failure, Yarema said.

"I think that people think that it's no big deal, that it's taken at
parties, it's taken at raves - 'Other people do it; I'll do it, too,'
" he said.

Police say part of the problem is that ecstasy, or MDMA, is a cheap
and accessible drug - making it especially appealing to young people.

"The majority of individuals seem to be in their teens to mid-20s,"
said Staff Sgt. Mike Bossley of the drug unit. "The drug was a
popular drug for raves in the past, but that has changed and now
we're seeing it in house parties and much smaller gatherings than
big, huge, organized events such as raves."

The source and amount of the drug on the street is unknown, said Bossley.

Tablets are often cut with a variety of drugs, including
methamphetamine, cocaine or ketamine, he said. "This drug is made
somewhere in a garage or a basement. The chemical com-position is
different with every pill.

You don't know what you're getting and it's very unsafe."