ECSTASY RUMOURED IN RED DEER OD DEATH

RED DEER (CP) - The fatal overdose of a popular Red Deer nightclub deejay
who made everyone laugh is convincing people to stop taking drugs, said his
friends.

Greg Walls's death is a wake-up call to people across Red Deer who knew him
as a true friend, said Jason Podovinnikoff.

''If you needed him and you were two million miles away, he would have been
there,'' said Podovinnikoff, 25, who befriended Walls a year ago.

''He was a 100-per-cent stand up friend. When he was in a room, everyone
would laugh.''

Walls, 25, died Sunday after taking drugs at a party at the Wedgewood
Gardens apartment complex.

Walls, a Toronto native, moved to Red Deer a few years ago to work in the
oilpatch. He became injured and lived on disability while working
occasionally as a deejay for the downtown dance club Euphoria.

Walls died shortly after arriving at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre. Two
friends were hospitalized.

A 27-year-old friend was flown to a Calgary hospital where he remains in
stable condition. Walls' girlfriend, in her early 20s, was driven to the
hospital by friends. She was later transferred to Alberta Hospital Ponoka.

RCMP won't confirm reports that the popular party drug ecstasy was taken.
They are awaiting toxicology reports on Walls's body to determine the exact
cause of death.

Const. Ralph Cervi said the powdery-like drugs found in the apartment did
not look like ecstasy to the officers.

Some drugs sold as ecstasy contain potentially lethal cocktails of other
drugs. In September 2000, police conducted a laboratory analysis of 13
ecstasy pills seized in Red Deer. Only five were pure ecstasy. The other
pills contained drugs including PCP, known as angel dust. Ecstasy pills
have also been laced with LSD, ketamine and even strychnine, or rat poison.

In February 2001, two teenagers nearly died in Red Deer when they took
ketamine, known on the street as Special K or Vitamin K. The youths, aged
17 and 18, were comatose when found by police. Ketamine, one of the exotic
drugs making the bar scene in Red Deer, is used by veterinarians as an
anesthetic.