EDMONTON – A Sturgeon County man’s death may be the first in northern Alberta linked to PMMA, though the toxic compound often added to ecstasy is also suspected in deaths in Edmonton and Fort McMurray, says Alberta’s chief toxicologist.
Morinville RCMP were recently called to a Sturgeon County home, where a man had died from an overdose. An autopsy showed the man had fatal levels of paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA) in his system, the RCMP said Thursday. The man’s name is not being released.
Since last July, PMMA has been officially linked to a dozen Alberta ecstasy-related deaths, including nine in Calgary, as well as deaths in Nanton and Red Deer. All cases involved a combination of MDMA, the chemical traditionally known as ecstasy, and PMMA. In only one case was MDMA the main ingredient. Methamphetamine was also found in eight deaths in southern Alberta.
Thursday’s announcement is just the first of three suspected PMMA-related deaths in northern Alberta this year, said Graham Jones, the chief toxicologist at the medical examiner’s office.
Preliminary toxicological screenings for deaths in Edmonton and Fort McMurray found “life-threatening” quantities of PMMA, Jones said. Further tests are being conducted to determine the levels of the chemical, but police have already been notified that the deaths are likely PMMA-related.
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“We’re at the point now where we know PMMA is present,” Jones said. “The screening gives us pretty good idea whether there’s likely to be enough to account for the death.”
The final determination will be left to the medical examiner, said Jones, adding that the other ecstasy-related overdose death in Edmonton this year has been attributed to MDMA alone. There were only two ecstasy-related deaths in northern Alberta in 2011, both attributed to MDMA, although one case also tested positive for methamphetamine.
PMMA has a slower onset than MDMA, but both chemicals can trigger “serotonin syndrome,” an excess of a naturally occurring neurotransmitter linked to feelings of well-being. In extreme cases, hyperthermia is induced, increasing body temperatures from a normal 37.5 C to up to 43 C, leading to organ failure and occasionally to death.
Since PMMA takes longer to kick in, users are more likely to swallow more pills, then overdose when the pills take effect.
Although PMMA had not been previously linked to any Edmonton-area deaths, police have long suspected the tainted pills were in the region. In early February, Edmonton police warned that PMMA might have caused four overdoses at an electronic music concert in the city. Later that month, RCMP charged a 21-year-old St. Albert man with trafficking pills that contained PMMA. It was the first seizure of the chemical in the Edmonton area.
Also on Thursday, Calgary confirmed PMMA as the cause of the February death of a 51-year-old man in that city. Police there released the information while announcing five arrests connected to seizures of PMMA-tainted ecstasy.
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