Related: Oh Molly!
"More concert deaths linked to club drug; Overdoses likely in Boston, New York" by Jeremy C. Fox and Matt Rocheleau | Globe Correspondents, September 02, 2013
Two men suffered apparent overdoses of a club drug at a Boston concert Saturday night while the same night in New York City, a University of New Hampshire student died at a music festival after apparently taking the drug, which is also suspected in a death Tuesday at Boston’s House of Blues.
New York City officials said the deaths of UNH student Olivia Rotondo, 20, of North Providence, R.I., and a man from Rochester, N.Y., who attended the Electric Zoo Music Festival appeared to be connected to the club drug MDMA, a pure form of ecstasy commonly called by the street name Molly.
Also, in Brockton Saturday night, police arrested two men on charges of dealing the drug....
In Brockton Saturday night, local and State Police arrested three men from Maine on outstanding felony warrants and for possession of what appeared to be about 16 grams of MDMA and 12 grams of heroin.
And heroin?
Patrick Lee, 32, of Bangor, and Mark White, 25, of Argyle, were charged with narcotics possession and conspiracy to violate drug laws, while Brandon Kerr, 23, of Bangor, was arrested on felony warrants, according to a statement from State Police. All are scheduled to be arraigned in Brockton District Court on Tuesday.
New York City officials said that in addition to the deaths of Rotondo and Jeffrey Russ, 23, of Rochester, N.Y., at the electronic music festival, at least four other attendees became critically ill and were hospitalized.
The deaths caused the cancellation of Sunday’s festival events....
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Related:
UNH student’s humor, dance passion recalled
Boston to hold hearing on overdose
Nothing on the hearing for the drug dealers they caught.
"Two concerts canceled amid Molly concerns" by Peter Schworm | Globe Staff, September 06, 2013
Two major New England venues have canceled concerts featuring electronic music amid growing concerns about the club drug Molly, a potent form of MDMA suspected in a string of recent overdoses at shows and music festivals.
The cancellations mark the latest fallout from three recent fatal drug overdoses, which have prompted an aggressive police investigation and warnings from college officials and public health agencies.
On Aug. 28, a New Hampshire college student, 19-year-old Brittany Flannigan, died from a suspected overdose of Molly at the House of Blues nightclub in Boston, and two other concertgoers were hospitalized.
Last weekend, two deaths at a music festival in New York City also appeared to involve the drug, which police say is popular at dance clubs and rave concerts. One of the victims was Olivia Rotondo, a student at the University of New Hampshire.
The spate of overdoses has raised concerns that what is being sold as Molly is actually a potentially lethal combination of the drug ecstasy and other substances, such as amphetamines, PCP, or cocaine. Users have no way of knowing what they are actually taking, health officials said.
“The common understanding is that Molly is MDMA, but who knows what it really is?” said Matthew Mostofi, assistant chief of emergency medicine at Tufts Medical Center.
On Thursday, Six Flags New England, an amusement park near Springfield, announced that an “Electric Adventure” concert slated for Sept. 28 had been postponed “in light of recent events,” and the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, N.H., canceled a rave concert called the Barstool Blackout Tour.
Ted Gatsas, the mayor of Manchester, said arena officials decided to cancel the show over safety concerns because of the overdoses.
“Based on the issues that have come forward, they decided it was best,” he said. “And I thanked them. It’s a very potent drug, and we need to find out a whole lot more about it.”
In a statement, the arena cited the recent overdoses and said the cancellation should “in no way reflect safety concerns we specifically have with the Barstool Blackout Tour.”
In Boston, police said they would have a heightened number of uniformed and undercover officers at this weekend’s Boston Calling music festival at City Hall Plaza.
And a Quincy nightclub that has been plagued by a dozen drug overdoses since Memorial Day also agreed to cancel an upcoming concert, under pressure from police. Police have made eight arrests in connection to Molly use at The Ocean Club, a popular spot in Marina Bay....
Mostofi said he had seen a recent increase in overdoses involving teenagers and young adults. Most overdoses involved the use of Molly in combination with marijuana, cocaine, or other drugs, he said....
Like heroin?
MDMA can cause increased heart rate, high blood pressure, and extreme dehydration, specialists say, especially when combined with alcohol in a hot, crowded dance club.
The drug is particularly popular among college students, who are drawn to the its quick, euphoric high and relatively low cost. Billed as a purer form of ecstasy, Molly has gained a reputation as safe, an image college officials are now working to undermine....
Bill Carlo, who directs the Addiction Counselor Education Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston, said he encounters few students who are concerned they may be addicted to ecstasy or Molly, saying the drug is not “physically addicting” like other illicit substances....
Like others, he speculated that the recent spate of overdoses is connected to a tainted batch of the drug.
“It’s not a drug that is made in a controlled way,” he said. “It’s a drug that is made by people who aren’t chemists.”
Yeah, those guys work for the pharmaceuticals.
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Also see: Security tightened at Boston Calling over ‘Molly’ concerns
Authority will use any excuse to tighten "security."