TL;DR of the article: 22 year old girl attends EDC and takes some laced pills. She begins to panic and becomes paranoid that someone is stalking her, so her friends send back in a cab to the hotel. Alone. In the hotel room, she attempts to barricade the door and sends panicked facebook messages to her friends.
Her dead body was found the next morning. She had taken a 20 story fall from her circus circus hotel.
Reasons this whole fiasco pisses me off
1. Victim's friend makes the unabashed accusation that "EDC claims a friends life. I lost a dear friend this weekend." Most likely, the quoted friend's blame chart sounds like: EDC-->ecstasy-->innocent girl dies. Well, ain't that dumb. In no way does EDC condone drug use. Nevertheless, a large and stupid subpopulation of its attendees blindly consume MDMA without responsible discretion and then try to project blame on others for their own bad choices.
2. Victim's friends sent victim back to her hotel alone in a cab, alone, knowing she was paranoid and tripping out. Some "friends".
3. One of the article comments linked to this reddit page. If this personal account true, the girl had taken MDMA at a previous festival and experienced the same paranoia. After going to a psychiatrist, who told her to lay off the drugs, she took them anyway.
4. Lastly, the title of this article. "EDC reveler"- really? A crass generalization that again, baselessly gives a great event a bad name.
Hearing this kind of shit gets me riled up. This is the quincentennial case of people who take a great thing and singlehandedly shit on it for the rest of us. Now I'm no a hardcore raver nor was I one of those bros chanting"I <3 EDC" on the strip last weekend. But I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with my friends and listening to some good sets at EDC. Knowing that people attending the same event are out there creating unnecessary tragedies truly ruins the experience for the attendees and the event organizers.
About the drugs.
I am not a critic of substance users; I believe that the desire to experiment with substances is totally understandable and natural for some people. But you're a moron if you don't practice some personal accountability. Don't put something in your body unless you've done your research and have accepted the potential consequences. If you're going to try something new, know its source, what a dose is so you don't OD. If you've tried a substance that screwed up your mind or body WHY would you take it again. Taking a drug for its "cool" factor is getting really, really old.
Back at Cal, I had a really nice lab partner. He was good looking, charismatic, and very intelligent. He also loved partying. After not seeing him in years, I searched him on facebook and my jaw dropped when I found out he was in a coma. The fuck? Turns out he OD'd on drugs at a party, had a heart attack, and suffered irreversible brain damage.
There is a redeeming yet bittersweet part to the story. It's been two years since the incident, but the boy's heartbroken mom has been faithfully updating the world on her thoughts and her son's condition as she stayed by his side. She even inserts kitty posts, probably for some emotional solace. Recent updates I've copied and pasted from his FB timeline:
-After weeks of doing increasingly well, following commands better, reading flash cards, and generally showing some more brain function, ____ suffered a seizure this afternoon. It lasted about 4 minutes. He has been off the anti-seizure medication for about a month or so and I dread putting him back on it because it slows brain function. We will see what the neurologist says tomorrow.
-News, news, and mews. Layla the cat has been released from the bathtub, having used her litter box appropriately. She is now the denizen of my home office, which is a much larger space, although still a confined area. She seems to need confinement and solitude, although she enjoys visits from her humans. Not so much from Zelda, who has enough energy to drive poor Layla nuts.
-It has been a very difficult couple of weeks. I removed the cap from the trach because I couldn't stand to hear him moan. He immediately fell asleep and stayed asleep for two days. He has been sleeping quite a bit because he was totally worn out from spending all his efforts just breathing.
-I don't know what we are going to do about the trach, but it has to come out so he can learn to speak. I am at a loss as to how to accomplish this goal without going backwards a full year and beginning the capping process all over again. Truthfully, I don't know that I have another year in me. I remember that I was once a fun, carefree person, but I no longer can really remember what that felt like. They say that a mother is only as happy as her most unhappy child, so that could be part of the problem.
I can't even begin to imagine the toll this has taken on the boy, nor the amount of regret that he must feel to have placed his loved ones in this position.
No roll is worth this shit.