Whistler RCMP are warning the public about the dangers of ecstasy after one young man died and another was hospitalized after taking the drug last week. In a separate incident, police say a 17-year-old Fernie teenager almost died last week after taking the illegal drug.
The fatal drug overdose occurred last Thursday (Nov. 12). Police responded to a call at a Whistler home at approximately 11 a.m., RCMP Sgt. Steve Wright said in a statement.
Kevin Van Huyse, 20, was found unconscious in a Whistler home Thursday morning after taking the illegal street drug. When police arrived, Whistler Fire Rescue Service and Emergency Health Services personnel were performing CPR, but failed to revive the victim, who was pronounced dead a short time later at the Whistler Health Care Centre, Wright said.
A second male who was at the same home was hospitalized after he, too, suffered an apparent overdose of MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine). He is expected to make a full recovery, Wright said.
Both men had ingested the drug in powdered form. While police are describing the death as an apparent overdose, RCMP and the B.C. Coroner's Service are investigating. LeClair said the toxicology report should help determine whether the man died from taking too much of the drug or whether the drug may have contained other toxic substance or substances that resulted in the man's death.
Van Huyse had moved to Whistler from Ontario right out of high school to live the quintessential Whistler life — snowboarding in the winter and skateboarding in the summer — while working in a restaurant to pay the bills, according to a friend, Jamie Leigh Taylor.
As for many young people in the ski town, the lifestyle also involved occasional use of ecstasy, which is easily available, said Taylor.
"It's everywhere. It's at the clubs, I've witnessed it at the bar, in washrooms," she said.
Taylor said Whistler's party atmosphere leads to an anything-goes attitude among many young people.
"The majority of kids — I'm not going to lie — do do drugs in Whistler," she said. "It's around consistently."
Earlier last week, a 17-year-old Fernie male who had also ingested MDMA in powered form almost died, Wright said, emphasizing that there was no connection between the two incidents.
Deadly complications
“These drugs are made by criminals using methamphetimine and toxic chemicals. Anytime you're taking these drugs, you're taking your life in your hands,” Whistler RCMP Staff Sgt. Steve LeClair said on Tuesday (Nov. 17). “People ask me, ‘Are there bad drugs out there?' The answer is that they're all bad.”
“There's no quality control with these drugs. All the person who's making them cares about is about getting their money,” LeClair said.
The RCMP warn that ecstasy disrupts the functioning of the brain, placing users at risk of depression, impaired memory, panic attacks and other adverse effects.
“MDMA is part stimulant and part hallucinogen drug, which can cause extreme health effects on the body such as high blood pressure, high body temperature and dangerously high heart rates, to potential lethal levels,” the RCMP statement said.
“These chemical drugs are very affordable and easily obtained in our communities. The chemical drugs are made in clandestine labs which produce large volumes of caustic and dangerous byproducts which are often dumped into the local environment with potentially devastating consequences.”
