St. Albert RCMP drug officers have arrested a 21-year-old man after an operation where they purchased ecstasy containing a substance that has been linked to eight deaths in Alberta.
Officers purchased the drugs earlier this month and sent them for testing, which Const. Janice Schoepp said is part of the standard process in cases like this.
James Douglas Hardy was charged Feb. 25 with three counts of trafficking in a controlled substance and was released on $1,000 bail. He will make his first court appearance on March 12.
The results came back showing that along with MDMA or 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, which is the common ingredient in the street drug ecstasy there was para-Methoxymethamphetamine (PMMA.)
“The PMMA was found mixed within the MDMA,” said Schoepp.
Ecstasy is usually sold in a pill form, but Schoepp said in this case it was a raw powder.
Since July 2011, eight overdose deaths in Alberta have been associated with PMMA.
Schoepp said this is the first time she is aware of that police have found PMMA in drugs sold anywhere in the capital region. She said it should underscore the risk of illegal drugs.
“Not just ecstasy, any illegal substance, any illegal drug, because you are never aware of what is in it.”
Dr. Mark Yarema, an emergency room doctor in Calgary and the medical director of the poison and drug information service, agrees with Schoepp and said health authorities are really trying to emphasize that street drugs are inherently unsafe.
“The message we have been trying to get out is that there is absolutely no safe street drug and no safe dose of a street drug.”
PMMA has a slower impact on the body and in many cases overdoses result because the person taking the drug doesn't feel any affect at first.
“If you don't get that desired affect within the normal time frame you take more.”
He said in addition to how people take the drug, the chemical is actually more toxic than MDMA and causes more serious medical problems.
“We know that PMMA toxicity results in more seizures, more irregular heartbeats and a higher body temperature.”
Yarema emphasizes firstly that no one should worry that calling for medical help during a drug overdose will lead to legal troubles and stressed doctors and nurses are concerned only about a patient's health.
He said people experiencing a PMMA overdose will experience excessive sweating and might display particularly bizarre behaviour or become agitated.
He said muscles also become stiff and rigid.
“The arms and the legs become extremely stiff, so if anyone notices that in themselves or in someone they have gone out to do drugs with, that can be a sign of trouble.”
He stresses the only way to prevent these issues is abstinence and said even if PMMA starts to disappear from drugs it could easily be replaced with something equally or more toxic.
