Movie was rubbish BTW 🙂

Another perspective on the drugs aspect, from someone who has been part of the ecstasy/dance culture since the 90’s:

1. Drug deaths/hospitalisations are *always* reported when they happen at EDM events. Alcohol/drug deaths at different events are not reported as much and when they do get reported there is a lot less hand-wringing in the media about the evils of alcohol or the type of event. So it *seems* like there are lots of deaths from drugs at dance events when in actual fact the statistics show that even in it’s illegal state, drug-taking in the EDM scene is a lot safer than most other teen activities.

2. When you list drugs by their danger/social cost/health service cost, alcohol and nicotine are *miles* more destructive than anything else. MDMA is in fact *ridiculously* safe. It’s the arcane ‘War On Drugs’ that doesn’t make a scrap of difference to the amount of drugs on the street, but only makes it MORE dangerous for young people who want to take them, that causes the issue. Most Molly sold in the USA contains very little MDMA. Experienced ravers like myself know that the best ecstasy is purchased by the ‘authorised’ sellers in the venue. I got some fantastic pills inside EDC 2013.

3. Drug use is *everywhere* in the USA. I walked down the Vegas strip and within a couple of hours had some methamphetamine and a pipe (3 nights dancing is tiring!). The hypocrisy of those decrying EDM for drugs while ignoring the prevalence of cocaine and meth across all other stratas of society is breathtaking. And don’t even get me started on the deaths from alcohol and guns etc.

4. Kids will be kids and do silly things. The young lady who died at Electric Zoo last year bought SIX bags of some unknown substance she was told was Molly, and proceeded to consume it all in one go! No-one can stop that kind of foolishness. Kids have been doing silly things with drugs since the 60’s. Why pick on EDM now?

5. From my clubbing/festival experience over the last few years I’d guestimate the percentage of punters taking drugs to be anywhere from 30-60%. Security can’t search everywhere and big festivals have their own ‘in-house’ dealers with drugs pre-delivered during set construction. So instead of highlighting the one or two deaths each year, why not point out the hundreds of thousands of young people who are buying illegal drugs from (ultimately) drug cartels (that have no quality control or safety instructions) and still having a safe, happy time?

6. EVERY death from drugs is sad, and avoidable with sensible laws and controls and education. These festival deaths are on those who have a vested interest in the continuation of the most stupid and ineffective drug laws ever created.