Jason Sears, lead singer of the Santa Barbara-based punk band
Rich Kids on LSD (RKL), died January 31 while undergoing treatment
for heroin addiction at an alternative clinic in Mexico. The
38-year-old father of three passed away in his sleep from severe
blood clotting, a possible side effect of the hallucinogenic
ibogaine used to combat his addiction. Sears is the third member of
RKL to pass away in the past 10 months—the original drummer,
Anthony “Bomber” Manzullo, died of “unknown reasons” at his home
last December, and Derrick Plourde, the band’s occasional drummer,
shot himself in the head last spring in Santa Maria. Ibogaine—a
Class One drug outlawed in the U.S. since the mid-1960s—is used in
clinics around the world to treat drug, alcohol, and nicotine
addictions.
