A fatality overshadowed the 2017 edition of Lightning in a Bottle (LIB) for the first time in the Central California festival’s history. Three months later, the San Luis Obispo County Coroner has stated that Baylee Ybarra Gatlin of Ventura, California died of acute lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) toxicity.
Only two other fatalities caused by accidental LSD overdose have been recorded. The first, published in the Journal of the Kentucky Medical Association in 1977, occurred when the subject injected over 320,000 micrograms of the substance under the false assumption that it was heroin. Scarcely any details are available for the second, which appeared in a 1985 Forensic Science International paper.
The day after Gatlin passed away, LIB’s organizers posted a statement to the event website. “Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of the woman who passed away at Twin Cities Hospital after attending Lightning in a Bottle,” it read.
LIB started out as a private gathering and has taken place annually since 2000. In 2004 it became a public event at Gold Creek Ranch in the Los Angeles National Forest, and in 2014 the organizers relocated it again to the San Antonio Reservoir Recreation Area in Bradley, California.
The organizers of LIB have not issued any further statements at this time.
Source: KSBY 6
