2 Young Women Die Of Apparent Drug Overdoses At Hard Summer Music Festival
POMONA (CBSLA.com) — Two women have been pronounced dead after collapsing at the Hard Summer Music Festival in Pomona on Saturday.
The women, one 18 and one 19-years-old, collapsed in separate incidents at the Southern California Fairplex and were transported to an area hospital, where they were pronounced dead. They have not been identified.
Doctors also told CBS2 and KCAL9 that a 24-year-old man is in ICU at Pomona Valley Medical Center also apparently suffering from drug use.
The festival, which features a variety of electronic and hip-hop artists, was scheduled to resume at 11 a.m. Sunday.
CBS2'a Laurie Perez reported from the festival on Sunday.
"People go pretty crazy, yeah," said one of 65,000 festival goers who attend the two-day event.
One of the dead teens was taken to Pomona Valley Medical Center.
Dr. Ken Moore warns parents about these music festivals.
"Parents, they shouldn't let their kids go to these things. They're just it's just too dangerous and they're disasters waiting to happen," Moore said.
Moore did not mince words. He told Perez that kids taking these drugs have no idea what they are ingesting -- the drugs (like Ecstasy, the methamphetamine often linked to musical events) are dangerous enough on their own, he says. But adding heat and dancing and other drugs or alcohol can be a recipe for disaster.
"What happens is, the kids feel high, and they dance and do a lot of muscular activity and the result is they can get muscle breakdown and they can have systems failure," Moore said.
An Anaheim woman died at the Hard Summer Festival in El Monte last year.
Fans told Perez there have been stepped up efforts to educate people about drug use at these events and even check the narcotics they are ingesting.
"They actually had a booth at a different festival that we went to where they would test your drugs to make sure its what you think it is," said Danielle Veloso.
The drugs are going to be used, said many fans. Regardless of the tragic deaths.
"It's gonna happen and the issue is that a lot of people are unfortunately not informed in what they're doing, how to use it properly," said Cameron Simpson.
