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L.A. County Creates Task Force To Make Raves Safer

Paresh Dave |
July 6, 2010 | 4:30 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

Responding to the increasing noise over the clash between cultural expression and public safety in the two weeks since a 15-year-old girl died of an apparent drug overdose at an L.A. music festival, county supervisors voted Tuesday to create a multi-agency task force to address the issue of raves.

The girl's death after being transported to a hospital from the Electric Daisy Carnival at the L.A. Coliseum has led to a multi-front response from county leaders.

The Coliseum and the Sports Arena are on state land, but jointly owned and managed by the state, the county and the City of Los Angeles. The commission that oversees the Coliseum has already temporarily banned new raves from being contracted to take place at the stadium.

The county's action to bring together public health leaders, medical professionals, youth from the community and law enforcement officials reflects a desire to minimize the harm to public health posed by raves, regardless of whether they are held at public or private venues. At the request of Insomniac Events, which organized Electric Daisy Carnival, rave promoters will also be included in the group. Insomniac declined comment to Neon Tommy.

County Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Don Knabe, who crafted the motion creating the task force, want the group to consider: ways to educate people attending raves about how to stay safe, instituting time, place and size restrictions on raves, and requiring private emergency medical staff to be present at raves.

“The best way to deal with public health issues is to inform and educate,” Yaroslavsky said at Tuesday's board meeting.

More than 185,000 people reportedly attended Electric Daisy Carnival over June 25 and 26, with 114 of the attendees requiring hospitalization. People taken to hospitals are not routinely arrested for drug-related charges after treatment because police officials do not want them to be reluctant to go to an emergency room. However, LAPD did make 118 arrests at the Coliseum, most of which were for possessing illegal drugs.

Ecstasy, a drug commonly known as E, can send the body temperatures of those who overdose to nearly 109 degrees, causing dehydration and seizures. Ultimately, drug intoxication can lead to a coma or death. Both a hallucinogen and stimulant, Ecstasy goes hand-in-hand with electronic music festivals that are commonly known as raves.

Recent incidents in L.A. and the Bay Area have raised concerns that the state is promoting illegal drug use by allowing raves on public property.

Critics have charged rave promoters with poorly enforcing safety measures. The girl who died at Electric Daisy Carnival, commonly referred to as EDC, was 15 years old. The minimum age for entrance to the event is 16.

Rave attendees and supporters argue that the events should not be barred from public land simply because of less than a handful of deaths. An outright ban against raves on public land could push some events into underground locations that could increase safety risks.

Federal law deters private landlords from renting their venues to rave promoters because property owners could open themselves to criminal charges if they are found to have knowingly promoted an event for the purpose of drug use.

Some members of the Ravelinks.com community have suggested on the online forum that the age requirement for entrance to raves be increased to 18 years old. Many members support more education about how to safely use the illicit drugs.

Recommendations of the task force are due in November, but that might be too late for two annual raves at the Coliseum in August and October. 

The problem with drug use at raves is not unique to L.A. Two attendees of Pop2010: the dream at San Mateo County's Cow Palace died during Memorial Day weekend of suspected Ecstasy overdoses. Sixteen of the 16,000 people who attended the festival also had to be transported to area hospitals that night. The Bay Area venue, owned by the state Department of Food and Agriculture, made $150,000 in rent, parking and concessions from the event.

As part of a larger plan last year to slide state properties into private hands that was rejected by the Legislature, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed selling the aging facility to generate much-needed income. A desire to sell the facility has also waned because after five straight years of revenue losses, the Cow Palace has been economically self-sufficient the past two years.

Cow Palace administrators do realize the need to redevelop excess space and modernize its facility. They are negotiating with a private developer to build retail stores where some parking spaces stand now in hopes of generating enough revenue to upgrade other parts of the Cow Palace. By changing the look and feel of the venue, civic leaders hope to drive away events events that bring with them illegal drug use as well as events that harbor the legal use of marijuana.

Instead of being considered for a sale, the L.A. Sports Arena, also an aging facility, has been targeted for complete redevelopment. The Coliseum Commission has begun preparing a draft environmental impact report that will examine two alternatives, both of which involve demolition of the current arena. On top of 17 acres of land, the commission could build either an open-air soccer stadium or a multi-use, open-air facility for parades, rallies and other public events. Rebranding the arena as more of a civic center and less of an entertainment venue could make it less attractive to rave promoters.

The problem with drug use at raves has been ongoing since the 1980s with municipalities such as Orlando, Atlanta, New Orleans, Detroit, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle all having to deal with the issue. With four to five major events annually, Los Angeles has seemingly become the main hub for the rave culture.

Toronto, Canada's rave capital, formed its own task force in 1999 shortly after the city's first rave-related death. The Toronto Dance Safety Committee made several recommendations, including that regulations of raves cannot be “too expensive or too difficult for rave promoters to reasonably achieve.” The committee also found that there cannot be “inequitable barriers to access of public and private venues.”

Possible safety measures include placing amnesty boxes for people to drop off drugs without punishment when entering or exiting raves, having separate events for adults and minors and limiting the size of events so police can better handle crowds.

EDC did feature a cool-off zone and First Aid station at the Sports Arena for people at the rave to drink water and find some peace away from the music, but the education component was not as strong. Yaroslavsky hopes the task force will come up with ideas to better educate minors who attend raves about the problems that come with drug use.

Most people who were treated for injuries at the rave or at the hospital were under 21 years old, and most of them were younger than 18, according to LAPD.

"If the culture is to enjoy this music by ingesting drugs, then we have to do a better job of educating people, especially young people, about what drug use can do to your mind and organs," Deputy Police Chief Patrick Gannon said. "The minors just do not have the same level of sophistication about drug use as the adults."

He said kids who attend raves generally follow directions and that measures at EDC, such as having a dozen private ambulances on hand, simply masked the problem of illicit drug use rather than responsibly addressing the impact drugs have on kids.

Cities in Europe imposed regulations on rave events more than a decade ago, and Ecstasy use there has decreased considerably. Concurrently, manufacturing of Ecstasy has spiked in North America, especially in Canada, as well as Asia and the Middle East.

“The annual prevalence of ‘Ecstasy’ use among 10th grade students in the United States fell from 6.2 percent in 2001 to 2.4 percent in 2004, and has been increasing since then. The annual prevalence among 8th and 12th grade students, though, remains stable. It is considered that diminishing perceived risks and disapproval among the students in US may cause a rebound in Ecstasy use,” the latest U.N. World Drug Report says.

The creation of the task force coincidentally coincides with a gathering in Los Angeles of several medical experts and public health leaders from around the nation. The event, co-hosted by the Drug Policy Alliance and the California Society of Addiction Medicine, aims to be a forum to lay the groundwork for improving California's drug policies.

To reach reporter Paresh Dave, click here.



 

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