Pubdate: Sun, 15 Oct 2000
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2000, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  333 King St. E., Toronto, Ontario M5A 3X5 Canada
Fax: (416) 947-3228
Website: http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoSun/
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Authors: Jonathan Kingston and Ian Robertson

WHERE DID KILLER ECSTASY COME FROM?

NEWMARKET -- York Region cops are trying to track the source of killer
body-cooking Ecstasy pills dubbed "death" that were seized from two men,
aged 18 and 23, at Canada's Wonderland.

The 64 small, white tablets are stamped with the Mitsubishi logo and have
been sold under the drug subculture brand name "Double Stack" in North
America, Europe and Australia.

Det. Michael Fleming said the seizure of the pills, containing deadly
Paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA or PMMA), was only the fourth made in the GTA
since the drug resurfaced in North America last May.

A stimulant first sold in the 1970s under the names "chicken yellow" and
"chicken powder," PMA can heat blood to a fatal 108 F, causes convulsions
and drenches users in sweat.

"Their internal temperature skyrockets and they literally cook from the
inside out," Fleming said. Nine people have died in the U.S. this year from
PMA overdoses.

"One pill can kill," Const. Rob Cullen said. "Once you take it, there's no
way to get it out of your body."

PMA-laced pills look identical to other Ecstasy tablets.

The names of the men arrested two weeks ago at Wonderland were not released.
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