Pubdate: Thu, 05 Mar 2015
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network
Contact:  http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Reid Southwick
Page: A14

DEATHS LINKED TO TAINTED ECSTASY ON STEEP DECLINE

Health officials reported a dramatic drop in the number of fatal
overdoses linked to a toxic street drug often sold as ecstasy, but
they warned the chemical has not disappeared from the black market.

Officials say a steep decline in overdose deaths related to
paramethoxymethamphetamine, or PMMA, came after "unprecedented"
collaboration among policing and health agencies that issued public
alerts about the drug.

"The public awareness and the public health co-ordination was not
only helpful, but it was necessary to save lives," said Dr. Mark
Yarema, medical director of Alberta's Poison and Drug Information Service.

"To put it in perspective, if the show Breaking Bad was all about
methamphetamine, the show about PMMA would be called Breaking Worse,"
said Yarema, who co- authored a study on PMMA deaths for the Canadian
Medical Association Journal.

Dubbed Dr. Death, PMMA claimed 20 victims in Alberta and seven in
British Columbia between July 2011 and April 2012. Since then, there
has been one fatal overdose linked to the drug in Alberta.

The victims, aged 14 to 52, believed they were taking ecstasy or
cocaine. PMMA provides a euphoric high, similar to ecstasy or MDMA,
but it's five times more toxic and the effects take longer to kick
in.

Users who became frustrated they weren't getting high quickly enough
often took more pills or powder and died from an overdose, Yarema said.

When taken in high dosages, PMMA increases the user's internal
temperature, heart rate and blood pressure. It eventually shuts down
internal organs because they get too hot, killing the user.

A spate of deaths in B. C. and Alberta in late 2011 triggered a co-
ordinated response. Police, paramedics, poison control centres, public
health agencies, Alberta's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and
the B. C. Coroner Services worked together to stop the trend.

Calgary police followed up on more than 100 Crime Stoppers tips and
conducted 11 investigations, five of which resulted in the arrests of
seven suspected traffickers, Det. Collin Harris said.

Law enforcement and health agencies also issued public warnings and
distributed information about the dangerous drug to parents, teachers,
students and community agencies. They also sent alerts to health care
professionals and North American poison control centres.

This multi-faceted approach helped nearly eliminate the number of
overdose deaths linked to the drug, down to one since the spring of
2012, said Dr. Jennifer Nicol, an emergency room physician and the
lead author of the PMMA study.

According to police, seizures of the drug have also dropped
dramatically. Since the arrest of suspected traffickers, Harris said
officers have seen PMMA maybe once or twice.

The drug has not completely vanished from the province. In 2013 and
2014, there were six cases of patients testing positive for PMMA in
southern Alberta, but they survived, according to health officials.

"The other important message to everybody is that PMMA has not gone
away," Yarema said. "We're certainly better at recognizing it; we know
what to do if someone presents to hospital and we're suspicious of
PMMA. And thankfully nobody else has died. But the problem has not
gone."
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MAP posted-by: Matt