DEA warning: Deaths in Boston, New York, and DC may be linked to 'Molly'

Shelley Goldsmith: Linked? Authorities are now awaiting toxicology results to determine if Goldsmith's death is linked to similar overdoses in New York and Boston

The Drug Enforcement Agency is ramping up its war on molly, the powder form of Ecstasy, after a spate of apparent overdoses of the drug, including three at the Bank of America Pavilion on Saturday, a death last week at the House of Blues and two deaths at a massive electronic music festival in New York.

“There’s no ‘good batch’ of molly, MDMA, Ecstasy,” said Anthony Pettigrew, a spokesman for the DEA New England division. “This is stuff that’s made in somebody’s bathtub in either Asia, the Netherlands, Canada, you have no idea what is in this stuff. 

Dealers want to make more money, so they’ll mix and adulterate the stuff with meth and any number of other drugs to addict people to it.”

In New York yesterday, the final day of the huge “Electric Zoo” music festival was canceled after two festivalgoers died and at least four more were placed in intensive care. 

Definitive causes of the deaths had not been determined yesterday, “but both appear to have involved the drug MDMA (Ecstasy, or molly),” according to a press release from the New York City mayor’s office.

On Saturday, Massachusetts State Police assisted EMTs with two overdoses of “what seemed to be an Ecstasy- or molly-type drug” at a techno-rock concert at the Bank of America Pavilion, spokesman David Procopio said. 

The drug is suspected to be behind the death of a 19-year-old student from Derry, N.H., last week at the House of Blues, as well as two other apparent overdoses at the same venue that night.

Amid the string of overdoses, DEA offices in New England and other regions are engaging “in a continuous exchange of information” to target those bringing Ecstasy — also known as MDMA — into the country from overseas, said Erin Mulvey, a spokesman for the New York DEA.

“We are seeing (molly) goes hand-in-hand with a lot of nightclub activity, concert venues, areas where there’s a lot of teens listening to music,” she said. “With these overdose deaths and the focus now with trying to get the awareness out, we’re trying to get in front of the problem.”

Boston Herald