Ecstasy Deaths

CDC report details deaths, ED visits among partygoers taking "Ecstasy."
The Los Angeles Times (6/12, Lin) reports, "A 24-year-old man died and 18 others were transported to emergency" departments "after taking Ecstasy at an all night New Year's Eve rave at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, according to a report released Thursday." These incidences occurred shortly after the deaths "of two men who had attended a Cow Palace rave over the Memorial Day weekend south of San Francisco." The authors of the article, which appears in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, said such cases raise "questions about whether publicly owned venues like the Sports Arena should host such events."
This is an issue that will only grow larger, considering that "use of the drug is increasing, and many overdoses go underreported," Bloomberg News (6/11, Randall) reports. In fact, the "number of patients at treatment programs in Los Angeles County citing ecstasy as their drug of choice increased almost sevenfold from 2005 to 2009."