Schumer Calls for Control on 'Molly'

LongIsland.com

Sen. Schumer asked for a crackdown on ‘Molly,’ a form of the party drug ecstasy.

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Following the deaths of two people who overdosed at the Electric Zoo music festival on Labor Day weekend, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is calling for a crackdown on the party drug known as “Molly.”

“The use of this dangerous drug, Molly, which is often contaminated with even worse drugs unbeknownst to the user, is skyrocketing,” Schumer said in a report from CBS News.

Schumer’s call to crackdown on Molly - also known as MDMA, the purest form of ecstasy – follows the overdose of two people at the Electric Zoo music festival on Randall's Island last month. Jeffrey Russ, 23, of Rochester, N.Y., and Olivia Rotondo, 20, of Providence, R.I. both overdosed and died at the event.

According to CBS News, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner stated that Rotondo died of acute methylenedioxymethamphetamine intoxication with hyperthermia, and Russ died from acute intoxication by the combined effects of methylenedioxymethamphetimine and methylone with hyperthermia. Both causes of death were a direct result of the drug.

Four other people attending the event were also hospitalized due to the drug, and the city called for the event programmers to shut down the last day of the event. Although many were not happy with the decision, the event organizers agreed and the last day of the festival was cancelled.

People who had paid to attend the show were refunded their money for the tickets, which cost about $180 per day. The Electric Zoo has taken place every Labor Day weekend since 2009.

Schumer made his announcement on Sunday, asking the New York and New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area group to zero in on Molly labs. He is also publishing legislation that would give the federal government more power to ban the chemicals that go into the drug.

“The drug user takes one molecule, one little addition to that drug, (which) makes it even worse, and that drug is not banned,” Schumer added.

[Source: CBS News]