Police are reportedly investigating whether a teenager who died at the recent Sydney leg of the A State of Trance music festival overdosed after a competition with his friends to see who could swallow the most ecstasy pills.
As Tone Deaf reported yesterday, 19-year-old Tolga Toksoz collapsed and died from a suspected overdose, while a 20-year-old man from Arnlicffe remains in critical condition after apparently ingesting illicit drugs at the dance music event.
While the circumstances surrounding Mr Toksoz’s death remain unclear, Assistant Commissioner Frank Mennilli has told Fairfax he believed a number of people were involved in an “idiotic” game during the event, which went down at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday.
[include_post id=”435127″]
“The information I have at this stage is that, basically, they were taking [pills] as a game,” said Mr Mennilli. “Look, shocking isn’t the word; idiotic is the word. These people were gambling with their life; it’s absolute stupidity, really there are no words for it.”
“A 19 year-old has lost his life – what a tragedy, what a waste,” Mr Mennilli continued, telling the Daily Telegraph that Mr Toksoz took an “an excessive number of pills” and that police had heard from A State of Trance patrons that some revellers had turned their drug use into a competition.
Mr Mennilli claimed he was also shocked to learn of a 22-year-old who accidently swallowed a bag of pills he was trying to hide from police in his mouth. “He had them in a plastic bag in his mouth and he tried to secrete them and accidentally swallowed them,” said Mr Mennilli.
[include_post id=”425208″]
The man informed police of what had happened and was rushed to hospital and released the next day. “I just think they are sick of living [people who take excessive drugs]. They are gambling with their life,” said Mr Mennilli.
According to police, post-mortem and toxicology testing will be carried out on Mr Toksoz and information will be forwarded to the coroner. The 19-year-old’s tragic death comes less than four months after Sydney teenager Georgina Bartter died at the Harbourlife dance festival.
The 19-year-old Bartter collapsed at Harbourlife following an allergic reaction to ecstasy. Yesterday, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that a man has been charged with supplying the pills that led to Bartter’s death three months ago.
