First of all, the author of this article, David Ovalle, is a terrible writer. The quality of this article is extremely poor. There are so many important facts and relevant data missing. It's almost to the level of propaganda! Drugs are bad! Drug dealers are MURDERERS!
How could a toxicology report come back with with a positive blood and urine test for Ecstasy? Real professional, that's *not* a medical term. "Ecstasy" is a slang term that could mean anything really. What else showed up on the report? What did the doctors actually test for? The symptoms of blue lips and itching are more consistent with an opiate overdose (e.g. fentanyl). Did they even test for that? The DEA has recently reported some "Ecstasy" tablets are now testing positive for this drug, which has a much, much lower safety profile. Reference: "ECSTASY MIMIC TABLETS (CONTAINING MDA, CAFFEINE,
AND FENTANYL IN ORANGE AND ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA" -
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/programs/forensicsci/microgram/mg1005/mg1005.html
Was this child taking prescription medications at the time? If she had been taking a monoamine oxidase inhibitor at the time, the combination of the two drugs would have resulted in a medical emergency. Even certain over the counter drugs such as dextromethorphan, when taken in excess, could result in a similar situation. Was there a test performed to see if she was a CYP2D6 poor metabolizer? Yet another potential issue not addressed. Pure MDMA by itself has a relatively high safety profile. If it really did kill a certain percentage of people the first time they tried it, there wouldn't be ongoing studies testing its effiacy as a treatment for post traumatic stress disorder. See
http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/news/maps_mdmaprotocol_approved.htm for more information. MDMA is not an 'evil' drug like the media always seems to portray it as. News articles such as this one only hinder the possiblity of our ability to use this drug for legitimate medical purposes.
Everyone is missing the true root of the problem here. The US Government's policy on controlled substances played a large role in this child's death. The current prohibition of drugs such as MDMA creates a black market. Nothing we do will completely reduce the demand for drugs such as this. Since the goverment cannot control what's showing up in these black market pills, chances are, anyone who's ingesting them is going to be taking adultered/cut drugs or even a completely different drug altogether. These adultered and/or mislabeled pills are what cause a vast majority of the 'overdoses' and deaths doctors have to deal with. If the government were to control the production and distribution of these substances, everyone would know exactly what they're taking, what dose it is, and it is pure and uncut. This would reduce the number of drug-related deaths considerably!
Education is also a major issue here. Currently, we still have the 1980's "this is your brain on drugs" mentality. No matter what scare tactics (misinformation) we try to use, people are still going to use drugs. Harm reduction is the only real, long-term solution if we really do want to make a change. It's essentially like telling your kids "don't have premarital sex" and never mentioning anything about birth control and condoms. People are going to engage in risky behavior. We need to reduce the risks involved through proper education and harm reduction.
The parents' responsibility and accountability should have been mentioned in this article. I understand the point of this article is to make you feel bad for the 15-year-old & her parents, and make you feel contempt toward the dealer. Most news articles I read are biased. It's too bad there's so many people not thinking for themselves.
The only crime Rodriguez committed was selling a controlled substance to a minor. He even said he was doing it to "make some extra money." Why would he want to murder (in the first degree no less!) a client and source of income? That's so contradictory! Why can't people see this?
