WASHINGTON, DC — Despite efforts made by concert organizers, some of whom beefed up security and raised age restrictions this year, the death toll from apparent drug overdoses, which seemed to spike alarmingly with the use of Molly (MDMA) and other party drugs at EDM raves in 2014, continued during the summer of 2015.
On June 12, Victoria Callahan was celebrating her 19th birthday at the Flume concert at Echostage in Washington, DC. After reportedly taking the party drug Molly, she felt sick shortly after midnight and was taken to a nearby hospital; she died in the early morning hours on June 13.
On June 28, Beau Brooks, 22, who attended the Paradiso Music Festival held June 26-27 at the Gorge Amphitheater in George, WA, also died. His death was also confirmed by autopsy to be from acute MDMA poisoning. (Another attendee, Vivek Pandher, 23, died July 4 after being found unresponsive from apparent heat exhaustion).
On July 18, Troy Goode, 30, left early from a Widespread Panic concert at Southhaven, MS, near Memphis, TN. He was acting erratically and taken into police custody, then died from an apparent LSD overdose at a hospital.
On Aug. 1, two attendees of the Hard Summer Music Festival at the Los Angeles County Fairplex in Pomona, CA died separately from apparent drug overdoses — Tracy Nguyen, 18; and Katie Dix, 19.
Nationally, deaths from drug overdoses have been trending upwards in recent years — not just at concerts, of course, and not just from illegal party drugs.
Although some states have reported declines, a majority of states have reported increases from 2009 to 2013, according to a report issued earlier this year from Washington, DC-based Trust for America’s Health.
Nationally, some 44,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2013 — more than double the death toll in 1999. More than half of those overdoses — 52 percent — were related to prescription drugs.
CORRECTION: The death of Jennifer Cline, 28, an Indianapolis resident who died Aug. 23 after attending Phish’s Magnaball festival in Watkins Glen, NY, previously noted in this posting, has been ruled “accidental by aspiration” according to documents issued by local officials; earlier reports linking Cline’s death to possible drug use have been corrected and/or retracted.
