ENOUGH WITH OD'S

Two young women were in a Calgary hospital
Saturday, one clinging to life, after overdoses
on the notorious and often-deadly drug ecstasy.

These latest overdoses come a day after police
revealed they are probing a sixth death tied to e
containing the deadly PMMA chemical.

Insp. Chris Butler said a 911 call alerted
authorities to a downtown hotel about 6:30 a.m.,
where an unconscious woman in her 20s was taken
to Foothills hospital along with another woman,
also in her 20s, who was not in medical distress.

The pair, who are from the Edmonton area, were
said to be at a Red Mile bar prior to the 911 call.

Soon after, the first woman was fighting for her
life in ICU. An update provided by police early
Sunday morning stated she has been upgraded to serious, but stable
condition.

The other woman went into medical distress, but
she was in stable condition Saturday night and
police say she has since been released.

Both had taken ecstasy they purchased in Calgary, police now confirm.

With dangers of ecstasy being so high-profile and
=93endless public warnings,=94 he said it is
disappointing to learn ecstasy is again the
likely culprit in these latest cases.

Ultimately, people are responsible for their own
actions =85 people might as well go under the
kitchen sink and start drinking Draino and taking
any other number of chemicals,=94 Butler said.

They have no idea what they are taking =85 people
just continue to die. It seems they are more
willing to accept the risk of dying for the sake of having some sort of
high.=94

Police are uncertain if it is a single or
numerous sources which led to the overdoses and
there is only so far they can go to prevent more.

There is so much of this drug out there it is
extremely difficult to try to stop the drug flow,=94 Butler said.

So what has to happen, is people have to be
responsible for their own behaviour.

Taking ecstasy they are, sadly, =93accepting the
possible outcome of =85 dying,=94 he said.

In November, 16-year-old Alex Kristof died after
taking ecstasy, about a month before an 18 and
25-year-old died after overdosing on it.

Days later, police were investigating another
apparent ecstasy overdose after a man in his 20s died.

As the number of fatalities has increased, six
between July and December, police have been
training to look for signs of PMMA when dealing
with natural death investigations.

Stressing personal responsibility, Butler had harsh words for drug dealers.

The bottom line is they are peddling these type
of drugs into society with no care of the
consequences, their concern is making money,=94 he said.

All drug dealers are completely morally bankrupt
=AD heroin killed people, PCP killed people, now
ecstasy with PMMA is killing people =85 it's not
like, suddenly, illicit drugs are killing people.=94

A 43-year-old man died in July 2011, but it was
only this week when authorities uncovered he had
ingested ecstasy made with PMMA, a toxic chemical
said to be a cheaper additive in the production
of synthetic drugs known as ecstasy.

Investigators are also awaiting results of
toxicology tests on a seventh case after a man
died from a suspected overdose recently.