On the first Thursday in March, a patron at the House of Blues nightclub started having a seizure. He’d taken the club drug Molly, he told rescue workers.
Within three hours, three more guests had fallen ill, all rushed from the Lansdowne Street club by EMTs.
On Monday, executives from the House of Blues were summoned to City Hall to appear before regulators.
They had sat in the same seats in 2013 following the death of 19-year-old Brittany Flannigan, who overdosed on Molly, a potent form of the drug ecstasy, at the club in August that year.
House of Blues operating partner Declan Mehigan noted a number of changes the club had made after Flannigan’s death, including beefed-up security, on-site emergency medical technicians, free water, and “cooling rooms” for those experiencing an overdose. “I have no idea why people would put stuff in their body and not know what it is,” Mehigan said at the Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing hearing. “All drugs are bad, but these drugs are particularly bad.”
Boston emergency medical workers were summoned to the nightclub’s lobby at 9:15 p.m. March 5 to tend to the man said to be having a seizure, according to a police report.
At 10:20 p.m., a woman told police she had taken an unknown pill and was not feeling well, the report said. Twenty-five minutes later, EMTs were called to the club’s merchandise table near the stage, where a man was dazed and confused.
At 11:55 p.m., EMTs were again summoned to the lobby, the police report said, where another man was dazed, confused, and unable to walk. All were rushed to the hospital. Authorities cited the House of Blues following the incidents.
“It’s troubling to me,” Consumer Affairs director Patricia Malone said at the hearing. “I understand you’re doing the best you can. I think you should be extremely cautious.”
The club’s attorney, Dennis A. Quilty, said overdoses tend to become a problem during shows featuring electronic dance music. “There have been a number of incidents around the country of people ingesting Molly or pills,” Quilty said.
He said it’s likely that patrons take the drug before entering the club. He said security workers conduct extensive checks of patrons, but the pill is small and hard to detect. One woman, he said, tried to sneak into the club with the pills in her bra.
“Our position is it’s very difficult to determine who has taken the pill until they take it,” said Quilty. “We try to stop it out front, but sometimes that’s impossible.”
Staff at the club have received training from emergency personnel on possible signs that someone is on the drug.
That night in 2013 when Flannigan suffered a deadly overdose, two other people were rushed to the hospital. The drugs were found to be purchased prior to patrons entering the club.
The well-known club on Lansdowne Street voluntarily closed that year during a police probe of the overdoses.
Malone said she was satisfied with the changes the club has made since then which included the creation of an “EDM Concert Security Plan.”
“That has gone a long, long way in making sure these incidents have been occasionally and not frequently in the city,” she said, adding she has 30 days to render a decision as it pertains to the latest incidents.
Last June, Molly appeared to have caused more than 80 people to become sick while at an electronic dance music concert at the TD Garden in what was described as a “Level Two Mass Casualty Incident.”
Rita Nieves, director of addiction services for the Boston Public Health Commission, said Molly overdoses tend to happen in waves, during the summer and often when young people gather at clubs and concerts. Her office has teamed with police and officials at large clubs to increase awareness about the dangers of the drug. She said less than 1 percent of treatment incidents are related to Molly, but it’s still an issue of concern. “You really don’t know what you’re taking, or what environment it was produced in or the substances used to produce it,” Nieves said. “It’s a gamble.”
Jan Ransom can be reached at jan.ransom@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Jan_Ransom.