Pubdate: Tue, 03 Jan 2012
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/letters.html
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Authors: Meghan Potkins And Jason Van Rassel, Calgary Herald

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.
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