Future Music Festival was forced to shutter its doors after one last hurrah this past March with some of the biggest artists in the world like Drake, Avicii and 2 Chainz. The Asian festival brand also expected to host an event in Singapore this year, but was forced to cancel after government officials refused licenses at the last minute. A stigma followed the Asian edition of FMF around drug-wary South East Asia where six people died of what were reported as drug overdoses at the time by local police in Kuala Lumpur. However, according to University Malaya Medical Center (UMMC) forensic pathology department head Prof. Dr. K Nadesan, post-mortem autopsies showed the cause of death to be heatstroke, not drugs.
According to the new report in The Star Online, drugs played a negligible role in those deaths. Two of the 16 attendees who were brought to the hospital under critical condition did not have a trace of illegal substance, which contradicts police reports that all deaths were linked to drugs.
Police at the time stated, "The six victims who died were believed to have taken the drug methamphetamine before going to the concert."
"Generally, the police did not show much interest in the reports. Unfortunately, they made statements without proper scientific reasons, which is not the right way," said Dr. Nadesan.
"They should have spoken to us and encouraged an inquest into the case because it is a matter of public interest to prevent similar incidents."
That being said, 7 of the 9 heatstroke victims did have trace amounts of MDMA, Ketamine or morphine.
"The autopsy and clinical findings were not on par with drug overdose. The police had no grounds to say it was. It was a wrong assumption," Nadesan reports.
That day the temperatures were around 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) , with high humidity and haze, as revelers danced for over 12 hours. MDMA can cause users to exert themselves and increase body temperature, which have a two-fold effect in severe weather like during Future Music last year.
Livescape Asia, the team behind FMFA, today a statement on Facebook, expressing their surprise and disgust about the new report and how the police handed things.
"The report that has surfaced today is news to us. Our requests for the toxicology report to the police and to the hospitals involved following FMFA 2014 were both turned down," promoters wrote. "For over a year, we have been led to believe that the deaths at FMFA 2014 were due to drug overdoses.
The tragic deaths occurred on the second day of FMFA and led to third day being canceled.
