psyfiend
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2010
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EDMONTON — Alan Hudson’s research question began crystallizing the night two girls collapsed, never to wake again.
The cold, wet spring of 2009 was punctuated by several ecstasy-linked overdoses in the Edmonton area.
In March, four Paul First Nation girls became ill after taking purple pills at a round dance at the band’s community hall. Within days, two of the girls — Leah House, 14, and Trinity Bird, 15 — were taken off life support. A month later, Cassandra Williams, 14, went into cardiac arrest and died after collapsing on a West Edmonton Mall dance floor. She and a friend had reportedly taken six pills each.
With a quarter-century of research experience in mood-altering drugs, the University of Alberta pharmacologist was wondering just what else might have been in those tablets.
“It seemed uncommon for so many deaths in so short a time,” Hudson said. “Though lots of people do take ecstasy, not that many go ill.”
Known to induce feelings of euphoria and intimacy, ecstasy itself is not considered addictive. A typical user of the designer amphetamine might feel down after a weekend of using ecstasy (also known as MDMA), but will rarely experience the withdrawal associated with methamphetamines or cocaine.
In larger quantities, however, ecstasy can trigger “serotonin syndrome,” an excess of a naturally occurring neurotransmitter linked to feelings of well-being. The heart rate speeds up, causing muscle rigidity and sweating. In extreme cases, it induces hyperthermia, an increase in body temperature from a normal 37.5 C to up to 43 C, leading to organ failure, occasionally death.
Ten months into the 2011-12 fiscal year, Alberta Health reported 228 such “ecstasy-related” emergency room visits in Edmonton, a slight upswing from the 240 in the entire previous year.
Pills sold as “ecstasy” aren’t always MDMA, however, and serotonin syndrome isn’t exclusive to ecstasy. The stats might point to MDMA, but barring chemical analysis, nobody actually knows what’s in those little pills.
It’s those unknown ingredients that Hudson finds especially troubling.
“We don’t know the long-term damage of these substances,” Hudson said. “Kids are using these highs on a regular basis, and it might not be damaging them when they use it once, but long-term use might be affecting their personalities. They may get addicted to some of these substances.”
For a sense of just what might be in a given pill, Hudson points to Ecstasydata.org — a Sacramento-based website listing active ingredients and proportions in mailed-in samples — which has tested thousands of hits of “ecstasy” since 2001.
A growing majority contain no ecstasy at all. Since 2010, 61% of 533 samples tested had no MDMA, with 111 containing the drug, and another 96 some combination of MDMA and other chemicals. Of 27 Canadian samples studied since 2010, 14 active chemicals were discovered, including caffeine, methamphetamine, benzylpiperazine (BZP) and procaine.
story cont. at : http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/0...-themselves-ecstasy-hint-it-isnt-always-mdma/
The cold, wet spring of 2009 was punctuated by several ecstasy-linked overdoses in the Edmonton area.
In March, four Paul First Nation girls became ill after taking purple pills at a round dance at the band’s community hall. Within days, two of the girls — Leah House, 14, and Trinity Bird, 15 — were taken off life support. A month later, Cassandra Williams, 14, went into cardiac arrest and died after collapsing on a West Edmonton Mall dance floor. She and a friend had reportedly taken six pills each.
With a quarter-century of research experience in mood-altering drugs, the University of Alberta pharmacologist was wondering just what else might have been in those tablets.
“It seemed uncommon for so many deaths in so short a time,” Hudson said. “Though lots of people do take ecstasy, not that many go ill.”
Known to induce feelings of euphoria and intimacy, ecstasy itself is not considered addictive. A typical user of the designer amphetamine might feel down after a weekend of using ecstasy (also known as MDMA), but will rarely experience the withdrawal associated with methamphetamines or cocaine.
In larger quantities, however, ecstasy can trigger “serotonin syndrome,” an excess of a naturally occurring neurotransmitter linked to feelings of well-being. The heart rate speeds up, causing muscle rigidity and sweating. In extreme cases, it induces hyperthermia, an increase in body temperature from a normal 37.5 C to up to 43 C, leading to organ failure, occasionally death.
Ten months into the 2011-12 fiscal year, Alberta Health reported 228 such “ecstasy-related” emergency room visits in Edmonton, a slight upswing from the 240 in the entire previous year.
Pills sold as “ecstasy” aren’t always MDMA, however, and serotonin syndrome isn’t exclusive to ecstasy. The stats might point to MDMA, but barring chemical analysis, nobody actually knows what’s in those little pills.
It’s those unknown ingredients that Hudson finds especially troubling.
“We don’t know the long-term damage of these substances,” Hudson said. “Kids are using these highs on a regular basis, and it might not be damaging them when they use it once, but long-term use might be affecting their personalities. They may get addicted to some of these substances.”
For a sense of just what might be in a given pill, Hudson points to Ecstasydata.org — a Sacramento-based website listing active ingredients and proportions in mailed-in samples — which has tested thousands of hits of “ecstasy” since 2001.
A growing majority contain no ecstasy at all. Since 2010, 61% of 533 samples tested had no MDMA, with 111 containing the drug, and another 96 some combination of MDMA and other chemicals. Of 27 Canadian samples studied since 2010, 14 active chemicals were discovered, including caffeine, methamphetamine, benzylpiperazine (BZP) and procaine.
story cont. at : http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/0...-themselves-ecstasy-hint-it-isnt-always-mdma/
