ECSTASY TOLL MOUNTS IN WESTERN CANADA

VANCOUVER - A third young person from Vancouver has fallen victim
from a reaction to the drug ecstasy in less than a month.

Police said Monday that a 22-year-old woman was with friends at a
house party early Sunday morning when the partying turned tragic.

B.C. Ambulance Service paramedics and firefighters with the Vancouver
Fire and Rescue Service provided emergency treatment on the woman at
about 6 a.m. but she later died in hospital.

Police say the victim willingly ingested the drugs. Const. Lindsey
Houghton said the woman had complained of a headache and nausea and
her friends persuaded her to lie down. They had all taken the drug
but without the adverse reaction suffered by the woman.

When they checked on her several hours later, they couldn't find a pulse.

"It's another preventable tragedy, and I imagine these folks feel
terrible," B.C.'S chief medical health officer Dr. Perry Kendall
said Monday. "I guess with young people, they hope it is going to get
better and you don't want to call the authorities. The tragedy is you
are going to find it is too late."

The B.C. Coroner's Service is leading the investigation into the
death but the family has yet to be interviewed and medical facts are
not yet known, regional coroner Owen Court said Monday afternoon. The
woman's name is not being released, at the family's request.

Vancouver police issued another warning to people using ecstasy about
the drug's "inherent risks" as well as warning drug users who have
used and don't feel well to seek medical attention immediately.

The past few weeks have seen a rash of ecstasy-related fatalities in
both the Lower Mainland and Calgary.

The drug left a 17-year-old girl from Abbotsford dead and a
24-year-old woman from the same Fraser Valley community in hospital
in critical condition.

And in Calgary, authorities issued similar warnings about the drug
after the deaths of at least three people in that city.

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

The caution came after three ecstasy-related deaths, including two
young men in the days leading up to Christmas, and dozens of alarming
ER visits.

The deaths came less than a month after a Calgary teen overdosed on
ecstasy at a house party. 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.

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

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 mid20s,"
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
composition is different with every pill. You don't know what you're
getting and it's very unsafe."

- - Postmedia News