Police cracking down on MDMA (the chemical that is supposed to be what ecstasy is) production in BC making it harder to get the right chemicals and causing cooks to use alternatives. This means PMMA is in some ecstasy pills and it can be deadly. However, MDMA is relatively safe by itself; if you read the news the deaths are usually related to an adulterant in the pill, overheating, or drinking too much water (so if you take MDMA don't do that). As well as this, the police don't want to tell people what the PMMA cut pills look like because they don't want folks thinking everything else is safe. Weird situation really.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Laced+ecstasy+linked+five+deaths/5994933/story.html
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20120114/ecstasy-deaths-calgary-pmma-drugs-20120114/