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Central Coast festivalgoer died of LSD overdose

August 4, 2017

Baylee Ybarra Gatlin

A 20-year-old Ventura woman who died after attending a music festival at Lake San Antonio this spring overdosed on Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), according to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.

Baylee Ybarra Gatlin, a Ventura College student, became ill while at the Lightning in a Bottle festival in southern Monterey County. Gatlin was transported to Twin Cites Community Hospital in Templeton, where she died early in the morning on May 28.

The SLO County coroner’s unit conducted an autopsy and determined Gatlin’s cause of death to be LSD toxicity. The manner of Gatlin’s death is described as accidental, according to a SLO County Sheriff’s Office press release.

Following the music festival, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office stated in a Facebook post that about 25,000 people attended the three-day event. The sheriff’s office said it had established a great relationship with the founders of the event in order to provide safety and security for attendees and staff.

Gatlin’s family, however, has contended that there were not proper medical services at the music festival.

Lighting in a Bottle previously acknowledged on its website that drug use occurs at the event, and organizers said protocols were in place to reduce harm.


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I wonder if she was really dehydrated, making the drug (s) in here system more potent. I agree with everyone else, I haven’t heard of anyone dying form LSD. Bad trip, yes.


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As Haddad and Winchester stated in 1990, “No well-documented human deaths resulting directly from the toxic effects of LSD itself have occurred, though LSD has been implicated in accidental deaths, suicides, and homicides.”1 And in Psychedelics Encyclopedia, Peter Stafford summarizes:

For those concerned about immediate medical hazards in ingesting LSD […] Abram Hoffer has estimated, on the basis of animal studies, that the half-lethal human dose–meaning half would die (a standard measure for drugs)–would be about 14,000 [ug]. But one person who took 40 mg. (40,000 [ug]) survived. In the only case of death reportedly caused by overdose ([Griggs and Ward, 1977]), the quantity of LSD in the blood indicated that 320 mg. (320,000 [ug]) had been injected intravenously.2


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If you can die from ingesting too much water, you can die from ingesting too many hallucinogens. What is so hard to believe about a toxic combination of various poisons in her body?


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I’d be interested in the LSD toxicity level Ms. Gatlin had at the time of death because the leading cause of death with LSD is not the persons level of LSD toxicity or it’s direct use but some ill advised action up to and including suicide. Another leading reason is an underlying preexisting condition that the drug exacerbates.


Something else to consider especially at a concert of this type and that’s the possibility of “dosing” going on (giving unwitting persons LSD without their knowledge through either an offered drink, food or by spraying them in the face from a water gun or spray bottle with water laced with LSD). I went to a Grateful Dead concert way back when at Anaheim Stadium and had a girl walk by me and spray water in my face that was laced with LSD. I’ve used the drug before and don’t like it, not at all! I had no idea that the water that hit me in the face and eyes was laced with LSD and in a very short time I was high as hell without knowing why! If I’d been alone I would have been in real trouble… Just something to consider.


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It is extermely unlikely that she dies from an LSD overdose. You’d have to take 100-200 “hits” for that to be possible. The coroner is quite likely incompetent, or she was trying to kill herself, or someone else was trying to kill her. The family should request another autopsy from someone competant. Accidental overdose is unbelievable.


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Doesn’t sound right? Either it was contaminated LSD with impurities or she ingested a huge massive amount. Is this what Sheriff says, or the coroners report? LSD toxicity is extremely rare.


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Say no to drugs, kids!


The family is blaming the festival for not having “proper medical services at the festival” – Wow, your kid was a fool to ingest a toxic level of drugs, please don’t blame the festival for her stupidity.


I am sorry for their loss, I’ve lost family members to drugs as well, one just recently. It’s a sad thing, but nobody made them take the drugs – they did that on their own and paid the price. We all make choices in life – some choose to make stupid ones.


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Really not buying this diagnosis.


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To try and hold the music festival responsible for this woman’s death only serves to promote the notion that we ARE NOT responsible for our own behavior.it seems that personal accountability has become a thing of the past.

This is a tragic end to a young life, but certainly no one’s fault other then the young woman herself.


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Death from overdose of LSD? That would be extremely rare. Probably not LSD that caused this young girls demise. Very sad either way for such a lovely young lady to lose her life. My condolences to the family.


3

Yeah, have never heard this of this manner of drug overdose. Strange.


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