NUMC: 26 teens treated for alcohol poisoning

More than 25 teenage concertgoers, some as young as 14, were treated for alcohol poisoning Thursday before the start of a sold-out show by rap music artist Wiz Khalifa at Jones Beach, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Shelley Lotenberg, a spokeswoman for Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, told Newsday Friday morning that 26 teens were treated and released.

"We're talking young teens," Lotenberg said. "Young."

No alcohol was sold during the concert at the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, State Parks Police said. But up until the start of the event, some in the crowd were found to be drinking beer and hard liquor in the parking lot, police said.

Lotenberg characterized the teens taken to NUMC as being "highly intoxicated."

"These young teenagers are being monitored very closely until such time as the doctors have determined that they can be discharged to their parents," Lotenberg told Newsday Thursday night. On Friday morning, Lotenberg said all of the teens had been discharged.

Parks police PBA representatives, who have been pushing for additional officers to be hired, said the sold-out concert probably had a capacity of about 13,000, but only about eight officers were assigned to the event -- with an additional six brought in later, either on overtime or from other parks.

Police Sgt. Manny Vilar, president of the PBA, said: "There's so much drinking going on . . . It's out of control."