EXTREME DRUG USE BLAMED IN DEATHS

Police Say Ecstasy Pills Vary In Content And Potency

Ecstasy is a drug that authorities describe as dangerous in any
amount, but anecdotal evidence from three recent deaths in Calgary
suggests they involve users who consumed large quantities of the drug.

As Calgary police continue to probe whether a fourth death, on New
Year's Eve, was related to ecstasy, mourners held a funeral Monday
for a 25-year-old man who died Dec. 23 after taking the drug.

A friend took Robert Harding to Foothills Hospital, but medical staff
weren't able to revive him.

"I think he took too many," said his older brother, Arlin Harding.

Arlin said he knew his brother had been going through a difficult
time and had used drugs before.

"I felt like it was coming, but there was nothing I could do," he said.

"I was his older brother and I tried looking out for him, tried
encouraging him to get off of drugs, but Robbie's decision was up to him.

"There was nothing I could do."

Harding's death and two other recent cases prompted public health
officials to issue a warning about ecstasy.

Daniel Dahl overdosed on ecstasy at a house party earlier this month.

The 18-year-old's mother said her son ingested up to seven tablets of the drug.

Dahl spent 10 days in hospital before doctors declared him brain-dead
on Dec. 19.

In November, 16-year-old Alex Kristof died after taking ecstasy at a
house party in the northwest. Health officials said Kristof took eight tablets.

Authorities said several people who attended the same party also took
the drug - but just one tablet each - and were treated in hospital
and subsequently released.

For now, authorities have no definitive answer about why three people
have died after taking the drug while others have lived.

The difficulty, said one drug investigator, is taking ecstasy in any
amount is inherently dangerous.

Tests routinely find ecstasy laced with other drugs such as ketamine,
cocaine and LSD, and in varying potency.

"Any amount of this drug is highly dangerous," said Staff Sgt. Mike
Bossley of the Calgary police drug unit. "You're getting a different
strength of drug every time you take it."

With that significant caveat in mind, Bossley said police have no
evidence that there is any particularly toxic or potent ecstasy being
sold and used in Calgary.

Police aren't seeing any significant increase in the drug's
prevalence, but Bossley said ecstasy's appeal has broadened beyond
its origins in the 1990s as a drug taken mainly at allnight dance
parties known as raves.

"Today, we're seeing ecstasy in house parties, at clubs and not just
at raves anymore," he said.

In recent years Calgary police have seized an average of $150,000 in
ecstasy annually. The approximately $520,000 seized in 2010 was
"abnormally high," Bossley said.

In comparison, police seized $88 million in marijuana from more than
110 illegal grow operations in southern Alberta during 2010; cocaine
seizures in Calgary topped $1.1 million.

The recent ecstasy-related deaths were sufficiently concerning for
Calgary police and Alberta Health Services officials to issue a
warning last week about the dangers of taking the drug.

There were six confirmed ecstasy-related overdose deaths in the
province last year, according to the office of the chief medical
examiner. But authorities say there could be more than 10
ecstasy-related deaths once toxicology tests have been completed.

It may take several weeks to determine if the death of a man in his
20s on New Year's Eve will fall into that group. Residents of a home
in the 1600 block of St. Andrews Place N.W. found the man convulsing
in their driveway and called 911.

The man died in hospital and police said his death likely occurred
due to drug overdose.