Date Published: 21/02/2024
Child dies in Spain after drinking energy drink mixed with 2C-B
It is not known whether the boy, 14, took the drugs knowingly or if his drink was spiked
A 14-year-old boy in Spain has died from a heart attack after drinking an energy drink that had a lethal mix of cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine in it.
This was in the Madrid town of Getafe, where Ryan left his house last Friday, February 16, to meet a couple of friends and some other young people they had met through Instagram.
They were hanging out that evening, and at around 11pm, Ryan began to feel unwell near the Los Espartales metro station, then lost consciousness and fell to the ground.
The youths they had met on Instagram quickly fled on the metro while Ryan’s friends tried their best to revive him while they waited for the ambulance to arrive.
The deadly mix of drugs that was found in the boy’s Red Bull drink is known as 2C-B in English and as pink cocaine in Spain. Initially, it was thought that the drug had been put in his drink without him realising it, but now police investigations have found there are no indications that Ryan was drugged against his will.
Even so, the amount of 2C-B that he ingested could have been up to two grams, which would be dangerous to anyone. The exact dose that entered his body has not yet been determined since the result of the toxicological analysis has not yet come out, and this can take several weeks.
The main hypothesis is that the boys met up with some people on Instagram who they knew would have drugs, in order to try them for the first time, and that Ryan took the drugs knowingly.
However, his family categorically denies that he would have consumed drugs voluntarily because he just wasn’t that sort of person.
Ryan was buried this Sunday 18, and a memorial with candles, flowers and balloons has been set up at the spot near the metro where the tragedy occurred.
2C-B is a psychoactive molecule which was first synthesised by the chemist Alexander Shulgin in 1974. The substance belongs to the family of substituted phenethylamines (a group that also includes methamphetamine and MDMA) and has effects similar to those of LSD and mescaline.
Its presence was first noted on the Spanish drugs scene in around 2010, but it seems strange that young people could have had easy access to this drug as the street price is around 100 euros per gram. As such, it is something of a ‘luxury’ drug for the wealthy.
That said, the majority of 2C-B on Spanish streets is not pure, but rather a mixture of several substances, the most common being ketamine, ecstasy and caffeine, according to a report by Energy Control from the NGO Welfare and Development Association. As such, possibly the most dangerous thing about this drug is that the components are often not fully known.
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