Less than a week after a woman was found dead inside a Markham nightclub, two people collapsed inside a popular downtown bar and one later died.
According to a published report, a 55-year-old man crumpled inside the Guvernment on Queen's Quay East Monday.
The man was transported to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Then, the next morning, a 27-year-old woman collapsed at the same club. She's still in hospital, reportedly listed in critical condition.
The report claimed that the man took an herbal alternative to ecstasy, a product that is available at drug paraphernalia stores and can be bought on the Internet. However, police are not confirming that the product is responsible.
The medical information on ecstasy alternatives is rare, and vague.
More is known about the "real thing," ecstasy; the street name for MDMA, which is in itself shorthand for 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine.
However, because it's always homemade and never regulated, it's difficult to know what you're eating.
And unlike other drugs like marijuana and magic mushrooms, the argument "if it comes from the Earth it must be good for you" doesn't apply: ecstasy is a synthetic.
According to
Health Canada, the use of the "love drug" can cause accidental death due to hyperthermia (overheating) and dehydration (fluid loss). However, death is rare.
The US
National Institute on Drug Abuse lists the more common side effects. They include feelings of sadness, anxiety, depression, and memory difficulties that can last for several days to a week. Ecstasy can also cause muscle tension, clenching of teeth, nausea, blurred vision, fainting, and chills or sweating. It increases heart rate and blood pressure.
Like other stimulant drugs, MDMA appears to have the ability to cause addiction. That is, people continue to take the drug despite experiencing unpleasant physical side effects and other social, behavioral, and health consequences.
These incidents happened just days after a
woman was found dead inside a Markham nightclub.
Police say Nicole Le, from Surrey, B.C., was found without vital signs inside Club Rio at 8261 Woodbine Ave., early Saturday morning.
Investigators still aren't sure why the 21-year-old died as autopsy reports were inconclusive and they're now awaiting the results of toxicology tests.