Pubdate: Tue, 31 Jan 2012
Source: Calgary 24 Hours (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 Sun Media Corporation
Contact:  http://24hrs.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4976
Author: Dave Dormer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)

SAY NO OR YOU MAY DIE, COPS SAY

After linking nine deaths to ecstasy - seven of which were due to the 
addition of a toxic chemical - police were blunt in their message to 
those thinking of using the synthetic drug. Calgary police are now 
linking nine deaths since June 2011 with the party drug ecstasy.

Staff Sgt. Mike Bossley from the drug unit said Monday toxicology 
testing found the presence of PMMA- a deadly compound sometimes added 
to synthetic drugs - in seven of the overdose deaths.

"We don't know what else to say about this anymore - if you use 
ecstasy, there's a high likelihood that you might die," he said.

"People have to realize this is very, very serious and they need to 
stop using this drug."

The most recent death came just before 7 a.m. Sunday when paramedics 
were called to a home in the northeast community of Falconridge where 
they found a 37-year-old man dead.

Police said drugs were seized at the scene and they suspect the man 
had taken ecstasy. Two other people at the house, a man and a woman 
who admitted to police they had also taken drugs, were transported to 
hospital in stable condition, said EMS spokesman Stuart Brideaux.

That came one day after two Edmonton women in their 20s were taken to 
hospital from a downtown hotel - one in lifethreatening condition - 
after taking ecstasy.

One of the women has since been released while the more serious of 
the two has been upgraded to stable condition.

Police in Nelson, B.C. were also dealing with an ecstasyrelated 
overdose on the weekend after a 21-year-old man fell unconscious and 
had a seizure outside a hotel in the town about 620 kilometres west 
of Calgary. The man, who i s f r om Nelson, was taken to hospital in 
serious condition but had improved enough to be released on Monday. 
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom