Pubdate: Tue, 17 Jan 2012
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 The Vancouver Sun
Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Andrea Woo, Vancouver Sun; With a file from the Calgary Herald 

TEEN'S DEATH MAY BE LINKED TO ECSTASY

Coroner Probes Connection to Other MDMA Fatalities

A 16-year-old Langley boy died early Sunday morning after reportedly 
mixing ecstasy with other pharmaceutical drugs.

The B.C. Coroners Service is now investigating whether 
paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA), an adulterant added to ecstasy 
believed to have recently killed at least 10 people in B.C. and 
Alberta, may have been a factor.

The boy reportedly took the drugs on Saturday night with several other 
people, according to the agency. Early Sunday, they heard him collapse 
and called 911.

Paramedics transported the teen to Langley Memorial Hospital, however 
he could not be revived. It is not known what other drugs may have 
been in the boy's system.

"Toxicology testing will be completed as quickly as possible to 
determine whether the use of ecstasy was a factor in the death, and if 
so, whether the ecstasy tablet included the presence of PMMA," the 
Coroners Service said in a news release Monday.

It is also reviewing the province's 16 ecstasy-related deaths in 2011, 
as PMMA had never before been found in ecstasy and was not routinely 
tested for previously.

Five British Columbians, ranging in age from 14 to 37, have died from 
PMMA-laced ecstasy since August, chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said last 
week. Of those, two happened this month. Three of the deaths occurred 
in the Lower Mainland and two on Vancouver Island. Five Calgar-ians 
have also died from tainted ecstasy in recent weeks.

PMMA is about five times more toxic than MDMA, or pure ecstasy. 
Because of its slower onset, many users take more pills - and end up 
with much more significant overdoses, said Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.'s 
provincial health officer.

The drug can cause the user's body temperature to rise, leading to 
irreversible brain and organ damage, Kendall said.

Emergency doctors in Calgary noted patients experiencing the effects 
of PMMA have shown symptoms far more extreme than those experienced in 
standard cocaine, methamphetamine or ecstasy overdoses.

"Instead of just being agitated, they were comatose," said Mark 
Yarema, a 15-year emergency room veteran. "Instead of an irregular or 
fast heart rate, they may have already been in cardiac arrest, and 
they often didn't present with the odd movements and [involuntary 
spasms and jerks] because their bodies were extremely rigid.

"It was an extreme form of total-body muscle contraction, and in some 
cases, they seized as well."
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.