Eleven Wesleyan students needed hospitalization after overdosing on MDMA. Two of the students from the Connecticut university are in critical condition.
According to officials, the most plausible scene is that the kids took a “bad batch” of Molly, a pure form of the ecstasy drug. Police are now investigating the case and trying to identify the person who supplied the students with drugs on Saturday night. They are trying to prevent other such similar cases from taking place. Unfortunately, up until now, no arrests have been made.
Seven of the kids were transported to a hospital in Middletown on Sunday Feb. 22. Four others were able to take themselves to a medical center. Out of all the eleven, two of the consumers were later transferred via medical helicopter to Hartfors Hospital as they were in a critical condition. Other two are in serious condition.
The hospitalized students come from at least two different dorms and a different campus building.
According to vice president of student affairs Dean Michael Whaley, all eleven consumers are alive.
MDMA is the abbreviated form of methylenedioxy-methamphetamine. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, MDMA is loved among users due to the euphoria and excessive energy that it produces as it increases the level of serotonin in the brain. Its effects can be compared to those obtained after taking mescaline or amphetamines.
Among other changes that take place in the body after taking MDMA, there is the increase of body temperature (also known as hyperthermia) which can cause liver, kidney and cardiovascular damage.
While a dose lasts between 3 and 6 hours, consumers have the tendency of taking a second one once the effects of the first dose start fading away. Most often, MDMA is taken in combination with other drugs.
In spite of its serious side effects, such MDMA overdoses are not as rare as one would think. In 2013, two people in their twenties who attended the Electric Zoo festival which was host at Randall’s Island in New York city overdosed and lost their lives after taking a “bad batch”.
AS a result, the last day of the festival was cancelled. The drug dealer was arrested and found guilty of conspiracy to distribute MDMA.
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