Coroner Slams 'Market-Like' Drug Dealing at Boomtown After Student's MDMA Death
Winchester, Hampshire – Drugs were being sold openly, "like food at a market", at the notorious Boomtown music festival, where a 22-year-old university student died last August after overdosing on MDMA, a coroner has stated. The death of Ben Buckfield marks the fifth fatality at the annual event since its inception in 2009. Former film student Ben Buckfield, a recent graduate of the University of Winchester, died after suffering a seizure following the consumption of four MDMA pills in what was described as a 'drug bomb' during the festival in South Downs National Park. His cause of death was confirmed as Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) toxicity. During an inquest at Winchester Coroner's Court, Coroner Nicholas Walker expressed, "very worrying", concerns about the widespread and overt drug dealing. He highlighted evidence from Ben's friends that dealers would wander through the festival's campsites shouting, "ket, coke, pills"...