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." - --- MAP posted-by: Matt