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A music festival in July opened her
eyes. Ambulance sirens were heard over
the music and woke her up at night. Seizures occurred as the nuclear orange sun
would set, creating the pinkest sky she had ever seen. Late night sets of
electronic chaos found multiple people convulsing, taking her blissful mind
away from the music.
Once the car
was packed and on the road from the music festival, Delaney Short would not
want to touch the drug Molly ever again. Short’s experience with Molly lasted
five years until she realized the dangers within the mysterious zip-lock bags
she was being sold of anonymous powders and foggy crystalline rocks.
Short
represents a more cautious user of this recently deadly drug, and shares why
she stopped her own euphoric madness.
The music
festival Short went to in July marked the first time she had ever tested the
Molly she bought. A girl Short was tenting next to said that a friend from her
hometown was selling Molly. Short thought that it would be safe because she
knows this guy, meaning that he is not just a random drug dealer.
“When I got the Molly it looked a little different than I’ve
ever seen before,” said Short. “Someone said that it didn’t look quite right so
I thought to get the drugs tested because at music festivals there are these
people called the Bunk Police.”
Short
explained that the Bunk Police is an organization against bad drugs. She said they will test drugs for you with a
tester kit. Testing a drug means dropping dye on the substance and depending on
what color it turns, it identifies what drugs are laced within it.
The $140 worth
of Molly Short bought ended up being Methadone. The Bunk Police dyed a tiny bit
of her Molly and the small crystalline rock turned yellow which on the color
wheel meant it was Methadone.
“From what I was told Methadone is a much cheaper version of
Molly,” said Short. “That’s the first time I’ve ever really known that my stuff
was bunk. Had I not heard of those guys, I would’ve just said, “hey I paid for
these drugs and I’m going to take them.” That was eye opening to me.”
Short
learned that you have to trust the person who is dealing Molly.
“Nobody looks like the person that is going to take your life
away from you,” said Short. “When they are selling you drugs they look like a
person who is doing you a favor.”
Short’s
first thought on the people who overdosed was that they were dumb and uninformed,
but then the more it started happening and the more she started seeing it, the
more she felt like it could be closer to her.
She realized that she could be the one picking up the bad drugs.
Recently, there
were two overdoses related to Molly at this year’s Electric Zoo. Electric Zoo
is a premier Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festival located at Randall’s Island
in New York. This year marked Electric Zoo’s fourth year hosting this event.
The second night of the festival, Saturday, August 31, Olivia Rotondo, 20, and
Jeffrey Russ, 23, died from an overdose of MDMA.
Short was
devastated when she heard the news of the deaths, especially Rotondo’s. Rotonodo attended the University of New
Hampshire were Short attends. Short said the news of Rotondo’s death swiftly
spread across campus when an email was distributed to the whole student body
about the dangers of Molly.
“It made me feel like any person I know that’s still in the
game of buying and selling was more likely to get bad Molly,” said Short. “Rotondo
got bad drugs. My friends were at Electric Zoo and purchased Molly there.
They’re lucky they didn’t get bad drugs. In fact, it’s a new kind of bad.
People used to worry about a bad roll, maybe a headache in the morning or a
clenched jaw. Now it’s life or death.”
According to
Steven P. Lee, UNH police lieutenant, MDMA (methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine)
is a crystalline white to brown substance known to cause feelings of warmth,
euphoria, empathy, and connection to others. Today, Molly is a nickname used to
describe MDMA, but the reality is that often times it does not contain only
MDMA – if any. There are numerous cheaper additives like ketamine, “bath
salts”, heroin, cocaine, etc. that seem similar, but can be deadly in lower
doses.
Short is
currently a sophomore at the UNH who is undeclared but plans on becoming a
communications major next semester. She
is heavily into fashion which is shown by the black combat boots she stomps
around campus in. Short is a girl who can rock a 5 panel hat, where guys on
campus compliment the native pattern on the brim. She deviates from the girls
on campus who all look and dress the same. These girls frustrate her. Her long
brown hair swerves around as she speaks with frustration. “Everybody is the same
person here!” But she finds herself in a great group of friends who enjoy
prancing around like fairies through college woods and Adam’s Point. They all
share the same passion for music and attend concerts religiously.
“Delaney always has a concert in mind to go to,” said Andrea
Belaidi, Short’s close friend. “She is a very fun person to go to a concert
with because she knows how to get down on the dance floor. It’s always nice to
have a friend that always wants to be doing fun activities.”
Short came
to New Hampshire from between the two tasteful cities of New York and
Philadelphia, where listening to music and going to concerts is a major trend
for young adults. Passionate pale blue eyes jump out of her skull as she enjoys
intellectual conversation. A believer of no makeup and a rocker of large blue
headphones, Short can be spotted downtown grooving her tiny round head to the
beat of the heavy bass.
“I always can spot Short from a mile away on campus,” said
Timon Fuchser. “She brightens my day when I see her jamming out with her big
blue head phones on and never fails to have the biggest smile on her face.”
Short had done
Molly more times than she could count in the last couple of years. Sophomore
year in High School was the first time she tried it. She first heard of the
drug when she was looking at a friend from her high school’s Facebook page and
saw that he had posted a song from YouTube. Short thought that he was a cool
guy so she listened to the song.
“It was a song by Gucci Man,” said Short. “The song was
called “Is You Rollin?” I thought it was a good song at first, but when I
listened to the lyrics I actually realized that he was talking about taking
Molly.”
A couple
weeks later Short and her best friend would be trying at a Rusko concert in
Manhattan with this guy and his friends.
Short said that the guy and his
friends took Molly before the show and they were having an unbelievable time.
They were dancing a lot, smiling, and being closer physically with each other
than she had normally witnessed. They were intimate, really happy, and feeling
the music’s power. Short and her best
friend decided that they wanted to join the fun, so the guys told them to look
around the venue for people selling Molly to people. They walked around and found
this guy who was standing in a dark corner of the venue. He was the first guy she saw that was by
himself, that is what made her think he was a dealer. He wasn’t dancing. Short went
up to him and asked him if he had Molly. He seemed to know exactly what she was
talking about, and he pulled some white powder out of his pocket and asked her
for $20. Short and her best friend went to the bathroom and rubbed the Molly in
their gums.
“We ended up having a lot of fun,” said Short. “The music
sounded really good. I sweated a lot I guess but the entire time I didn’t know
this. Time went by really quickly, and I was really relaxed, comfortable,
social, and happy. The morning after I felt like myself, and when it came time
for Monday I went to school and I was my normal self. I felt normal, but I had
done Molly.”
Short then
began to do Molly whenever she could get her hands on it. Every time she did
Molly the experience would be so much fun. She savored the experience. She
would save it for fun experiences she was looking forward to like EDM concerts. She figured, “why not look forward to it a
little bit more and do some drugs”.
This past
summer Short did Molly more than usual, but never felt guilty or uncomfortable
about it. At one point every weekend she thought about the fact of just doing a
little bit of it would be fun, and not be a big deal. In terms of a problem, like an addiction,
she’s not really sure. Short thinks the only time it turns into a problem is when
what you get is a toxin that can kill you.
The more
Short got comfortable with the drug, the more she started to notice that it was
dangerous. She could rate a couple of experiences that made her change the way
she saw it from being this casual fun thing, to something that is actually
dangerous.
During a
weekend at college Short and her friends decided to visit friends at
Northeastern for a Major Lazer concert at the House of Blues in Boston. Short’s
friends from Northeastern said she could get them Molly. They met up with these
two guys who Short’s friend knew from school so she figured that her friend
knew and trusted them. They gave them
the Molly and it was in rock form this time. They each had a rock before going
in, and by the time they left they were all still feeling the Molly a lot. Short’s friend said her pupils were so
dilated. Short felt jittery, happy, and excited. One of my Short’s friend was
clenching her jaw a lot and biting the insides of her mouth, and she kept
telling her, “stop what are you doing!”
“I know my friend and
I know she doesn’t bite the inside of her mouth as a habit,” said Short. “She
wouldn’t stop, gnawing on the inside of her mouth, and by the time we left
there was blood spilt down her shirt. That was very scary to me because you
just don’t want to watch a friend destroy their body that they can’t even feel.
This was supposed to be fun. That’s not casual.”
A hula hoop
slides around Short’s waste in the crisp fall sun. Dancing with the clear hula
hoop around her waist, she flows to the soothing instrumental playing from her
MacBook, almost camouflaged within the orange and brown leaves that recently
fell on top of its keypad. Her smile is kind, and her long brown hair swims
around as she moves her body while the hoop follows her slim hips lead. Short
is a ballerina with her hoop, a beautiful hobby that has taken over her soul
when she becomes bored. She began hula hooping shortly after her decision to
stop doing Molly.
“This hobby is beautiful,” said Short. “There are a lot more
beautiful things in this world than the feeling of Molly; you just need to let
it find you.”
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