VANCOUVER -- At least one of the Lower Mainland’s recent ecstasy deaths is linked to the same toxic chemical found in a batch of the drug that killed five in Calgary, B.C.’s provincial health officer confirmed Thursday.

“There has been one confirmed [paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA)]-associated death in the Lower Mainland recently, and I think there are indications of a couple of others,” Dr. Perry Kendall said in a conference call with media on Thursday afternoon.

Kendall could not comment specifically on which ecstasy-related death he was referring to, noting the B.C. Coroners Service would release that information soon.

Meanwhile, the BCCS will also review the rest of the province’s 16 ecstasy-related deaths in 2011 to determine whether PMMA was present, as it is not routinely tested for, Kendall said.

Unlike MDMA — pure ecstasy — PMMA has a slower and milder onset of its effects.

“[Users] start taking more pills because they think they got lower doses and they end up with much more significant overdoses,” Kendall said.

He noted it [PMMA] also “significantly interferes” with the brain, which can cause the user’s body temperature to rise.

“Once you get to 104, 105 degrees, you can get irreversible brain and organ damage,” Kendall said.

PMMA is about five times more toxic than MDMA ecstasy.

Among those waiting for answers about MDMA-related deaths in B.C. are the parents of Tyler Miller, 20, of Abbotsford, who died after taking the drug on Nov. 27, 2011.

“He had all the info from us; he knew all the facts,” said Tyler’s father, Russ Miller. “But it’s the adage at that age: Nothing touches you. You’re bulletproof.”

Miller and his wife, Laurie Mossey, a youth drug and addictions worker, had previously found an open Facebook page where Tyler and his friends were talking about the drug. They made him attend drug counselling sessions for six weeks and when he passed a random drug test some months later they thought he had put it behind him.

“Don’t trust everything you’re told,” Miller cautioned parents. “You want to double-check and then triple-check. Being a little nosy but having them there for the rest of your life? I’d rather be a little nosy.

“Even that’s not going to guarantee a sure thing, but at that point you’ve done what you can.”

Miller describes their only child as an aspiring musician and straight-A student, not a partier or troubled youth.

“From the texts and stuff afterwards it sounded like basically there were four guys [including Miller] and they lined up to make a purchase for four [ecstasy pills],” Miller said. “If I could channel him, the only thing I think possibly going through his head was, ‘It’s only the big time druggies that take too much. Everybody’s taking a pill. It’s just one pill.’”

That one pill caused Tyler to overheat, start panicking and eventually lose consciousness. His friends — some high on ecstasy — gave him a bag of frozen peas to help cool him down, and, after about half an hour, rushed him to a hospital, Miller said.