LETHALLY TAINTED ECSTASY LIKELY BEHIND DEATHS

Alberta's Chief Medical Examiner has confirmed that a batch of the
street drug ecstasy, believed to be behind a spate of recent deaths,
may have been tainted with a lethal chemical never before seen in
Calgary by police.

Calgary police and provincial health authorities are again warning
about the dangers of the drug following the release of preliminary
toxicology reports into five Calgary-area deaths.

Results show that paramethoxymethamphetamine, or PMMA, and
methamphetamine, not previously associated with ecstasy, were present
in toxicology results in each of the overdose deaths, officials said Wednesday.

The compound is believed to be five times more toxic than traditional
ecstasy, or MDMA, health officials said.

"What we're finding in this case is that people were getting
something very different than what they though they were," said Dr.
Mark Yarema, medical director for the Poison and Drug Information
Service and a Calgary emergency room physician.

In each case, police say overdose victims believed they were
ingesting ecstasy, or MDMA, not PMMA or methamphetamine. And while
the cause of each death is still under investigation, police say the
presence of PMMA is a common link in each death.

"Some (ingested) capsules, some powder, some were tablets, but the
common thread through all of it was PMMA," said Det. Doug Hudacin, of
the Calgary police drug unit. "The fact that (ecstasy) is being mixed
with something else is not a new trend."

And health officials noted that the chemical's delayed side-effects
may be behind the high number of fatalities.

"What happens is that the symptoms may be milder in nature when
somebody takes one or two pills, and the danger that occurs is that
people take more pills to achieve the desired effect," Yarema said.
"This can result in fatal consequences and this may explain the
number of fatalities."

Calgary police are consulting with other law enforcement agencies and
poison centres across Canada and in the U.S., but the source of the
drug is unknown.

Police said the majority of the ecstasy found in Calgary originates
from B.C.'s lower mainland and that the average price fetched by the
drug has dropped in the past decade.

"It's down to about three to five dollars now," said Staff Sgt. Mike
Bossley. "The danger is that it's not very expensive. The less
something costs to purchase, the broader base it will command for customers.

"This is a prime example of the gamble people take when they use
illegal drugs," Bossley said. "You never know what is in your drug:
yesterday it was MDMA, today it's PMMA, and tomorrow it could be
something else. There is no safe street drug and no safe dose of a
street drug."

The deaths go back to November when a 16-year-old overdosed. Four
more deaths followed in December, with the victims aged 18, 25, 29 and 31.