Pubdate: Tue, 31 Jan 2012
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/letters.html
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Jason Van Rassel
Note: With files from Meghan Potkins, Calgary Herald, and Keith 
Gerein, Edmonton Journal.
Page: B1

ECSTASY DEATH TOLL HITS SEVEN

PMMA Was In Street Drug

As tests link a seventh Calgary death to ecstasy made with a toxic 
additive, provincial officials said Monday there is no "quick fix" to 
the recent spate of fatal overdoses connected to the street drug.

Toxicology results revealed by police Monday indicated the death of 
Cody Gorlick, 23, at the SAIT residence on Jan. 21 involved ecstasy 
made with paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA).

Two more overdose deaths, including one in the city's northeast on 
the weekend and one in Nanton last week, have not been confirmed as 
ecstasy-related by police.

The addition of PMMA makes ecstasy far more potent and local 
authorities are linking its recent appearance in the Calgary area 
with several recent overdose deaths, including Gorlick's.

It's been seven days since Deborah Gorlick cremated her son, but the 
news Monday that his death has been linked to a particularly toxic 
supply of ecstasy brought no closure.

"Now we know it was poison,"  Gorlick said. "I hope the people making 
it are scared. They've got to catch these people."

Gorlick said she has been contacted by other families of overdose 
victims and while she isn't convinced her son deliberately took the 
drug, she said there is comfort in the companionship of others who 
have suffered a similar loss.

"In a way, the news doesn't change anything. I'm going to miss him 
for the rest of my life. There is a big hole in our family," Gorlick said.

Calgary police continue to probe whether PMMA was involved in two 
drug-related cases on the weekend.

A 37-year-old man died and a man and woman went to hospital after 
police and paramedics were called to a home on Falsby Place N.E. on 
Sunday morning.

On Saturday two women in their 20s from Edmonton went to hospital 
after consuming what they believed was ecstasy.

Two other deaths in the Calgary area since last summer have been 
linked to ecstasy, while authorities in B.C. believe at least five 
deaths in that province involve PMMA.

Although PMMA has prompted police and health officials to step up 
their warnings about the dangers of ecstasy, a senior officer said 
taking the drug in any form, from any source, is unsafe. "Let's not 
sugar-coat this. It's very simple: taking ecstasy is very 
risky,"  Supt. Kevan Stuart said. "You're playing Russian roulette."

Monday Justice Minister Verlyn Olson was asked if the province will 
be involved in some kind of response to the deaths, including the 
possibility of starting a program allowing people to bring in their 
ecstasy without facing a criminal charge.

Olson said a recent meeting with other provincial justice ministers 
showed that everyone in Canada is dealing with the problem of gangs and drugs.

"We're all looking for effective means of dealing with them,"  he 
said. "I think there is a growing awareness about how prevention and 
early intervention and so on is a huge part of the answer.

"Some of these things, they're not quick fixes where you are going to 
come up with a law or a check that's going to solve the problem in 
the short term,"  Olson said.

Ecstasy can come as a powder, be put into capsules or pressed into pills.

Drug investigators said powdered ecstasy has been consistently found 
in the recent PMMA-related cases - but that doesn't mean pills or 
capsules don't also contain the highly toxic additive.

"It's not one type of ecstasy,"  said Staff Sgt. Mike Bossley of the 
drug unit. The ecstasy that police have found in the fatal cases so 
far hasn't provided any clues about its source, Bossley added.

Drug investigators arrested a man over the weekend and seized a small 
amount of cocaine and ecstasy, but Bossley said there's no indication 
the drug had PMMA.

Although police are encountering ecstasy more often recently, Bossley 
said it's difficult to know if there is more of it on the streets.

Police say ecstasy has broadened beyond its origins as a drug taken 
mainly by younger people at all-night dance parties known as raves.

"We have people 30 to 40 years of age who are taking this who should 
know better - they do know better,"  Stuart said.
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