Party-goer 'boiled' to death on Ecstacy drug

Tuesday 13 September 1994 18:02 EDT
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A healthy man 'boiled' to death after taking three Ecstasy tablets, an inquest heard yesterday.

James Rollason, 20, a chef, was found collapsed next to the loudspeakers at the monthly all-night rave at the Vox Nightclub, Brighton Terrace, in Brixton, in July.

His temperature had soared to 41C, four degrees higher than normal body rate. He had also started to bleed internally throughout his body.

Southwark Coroners Court was told he had taken five times the medical limit of the drug. But pathologist Dr Ian Hill emphasised: 'There is no safe level of the drug - one tablet could kill a person.'

He said that Mr Rollason, who lived with his family at Red Hill, Wateringbury, Maidstone, Kent, had 'boiled up' because the Ecstasy had slowly shut down his temperature control system.

The fact that he had been dancing vigorously to techno music in a hot atmosphere would have quickened the insidious reaction, he said.

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