Police fear a bad batch of the popular designer drug Molly is to blame for a rash of overdoses and deaths in the Northeast. The news comes just days after two people died from the drug at the electronic music festival Electric Zoo in New York on Labor Day weekend.
As Gothamist reports, a teenage girl died while attending a concert at the House of Blues in Boston on Aug. 27. Brittany Flannigan, 19, reportedly started “convulsing” during the show and was taken to a stairwell in the club.
“We just tried to stay with her until the ambulance came,” security staffer William Farago told the Boston Globe. Flannigan was transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where she was pronounced dead.
Shortly after Flannigan collapsed, a 23-year-old man also overdosed. He was hospitalized but survived.
Earlier that same night, another woman collapsed on the dance floor. According to the Boston Herald, she was unresponsive and taken to Beth Israel Deaconess. She survived, but two pills were found in her pocket, along with a packet of white powder in her bra.
Molly, which contains elements of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), or Ecstasy, is suspected in all three incidents. According to NECN, police believe there is a lethal batch of Molly making the rounds in the Northeast.
Meanwhile, cops arrested and charged eight people with possession or distribution of drugs in connection with Molly use at the Ocean Club at Marina Bay in Quincy, Mass. As the Boston Globe reports, there have been a dozen overdoses at the club since Memorial Day.
“Young people tend to think this stuff isn’t dangerous, and it is dangerous,” a DEA spokesman told the Globe, according to Gothamist. “This stuff gets manufactured in someone’s bathtub. You just don’t know what’s in it.”
Gothamist reports that there are 10 Ecstasy-related deaths per year in New York City.
“Molly is somewhat the Ecstasy of this new generation. It increases the heart rate. It raises the body temperature. For the drug part of it, it creates this euphoric feeling. It’s really kind of entered the mainstream a little bit more,” said Lt. Detective Robert Merner of the Boston Police Department, according to WHDH.
Venues like the House of Blues say they are doing everything they can to stop the flow of drugs in their club, but "it’s very difficult to determine whether someone has a tiny pill or packet of powder on their person,” a lawyer for the House of Blues said. “We’re as vigilant as can be, but it’s very difficult to stop."
As previously reported, two people died at Electric Zoo over Labor Day weekend after taking lethal doses of Molly.
Bad Batch Of Designer Drug Molly To Blame For Multiple Deaths And Overdoses In Northeastern U.S.: Report
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