Drug overdose kills Victorian football player Riki Stephens

Australian footballer Riki Stephens from the Heathcote Saints team in Victoria died on Friday due to drug overdose. According to toxicology tests, he took a combination of amphetamine-type substances, including methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and synthetic lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) which is also known as N bomb.

However, the Queensland Police, which released results of toxicology tests on Thursday, said the 16 drug overdose victims, including Stephens, did not find any trace of flakka, originally thought to be the drug taken by the victims, News.com.au reports.

The drug overdoses occurred last weekend in Surfers Paradise, Labrador and Mermaid Waters. Almost a week after the overdose, the family of Stephens turned off his life support at the Gold Coast University Hospital on

Riki Stephens was in Gold Coast celebrating the end of the football season. Messages of support poured for his family on Facebook as soon as news of the athlete’s death spread, Herald Sun reports.

Authorities charged two people for the overdoses. One was a 24-year-old man from Bundall accused on Sunday of supplying a dangerous drug. Similar charges were filed on Wednesday against a 21-year-old man.

According to Monica Barratt from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, the N-bomb emerged over the past five years. It is usually taken in a similar way to LSD under the tongue or in the cheek, but often in much lower doses in microgrammes than MDMA often taken in milligrammes.