I don’t know if I’ve ever stated for the record here that I was a raver for about seven years in Washington, DC. I loved (and still love) the rave culture and everything that it brings to us. Incredible music, amazing friendships, fun parties, etc. But now, apparently, they are targeting raves as though they were crackhouses. This really ticks me off.
Why? Because not every raver does drugs. Because bottled water and glow sticks aren’t “drug paraphernalia”. Because they are targeting a drug (Ecstasy) that could be used for valid reasons and which I think should be legalized.
There. I said it. In public. I didn’t think I ever would, but there you go. I’m not a bad person, I’m not terribly liberal, and I’m not one to usually take a stand on something political. But when you call a rave a “drug haven” without taking into account the people that are there strictly for the music, or the percentage of people that are straight-edge (meaning they don’t take drugs, drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes), I get angry.
Back in the early 1980s when MDMA was first tested and used by doctors, they found that it was quite helpful in various ways. Alcoholics quit drinking altogether, troubled or estranged couples found they could communicate and fix their relationships, and there were even some cocaine addicts who quit doing coke altogether. So MDMA can be a valuable tool for helping people.
The problem comes when people do it too much. I’ve said this time and again: Pure MDMA is not an addictive drug the way that heroin or crack or even tobacco is. The body doesn’t go into withdrawal to where you are shaking, sweating or heaving your guts out if you don’t get another tab. The key to MDMA is that you not take it that often – once a month at the most. That’s the way to get the best effect of MDMA. Take it any more than that, and after a while no matter how much you take you won’t feel a thing. This has been proven time and again.
Another problem comes when people don’t take pure MDMA but a designer copy. The copies include speed and various other chemicals, which CAN be addictive – thus spreading the false fact that MDMA is addictive. I don’t know of any studies that show that PURE AND TRUE MDMA is physically addictive. If you do, feel free to post a link here.
I didn’t mean to get on this tangent, and trust me – I can talk for HOURS on the topic with all the books I’ve read on the subject. I just wanted to say that articles like the one I posted make me angry because the politicians are lumping together a large group of people at one location with various interests. They don’t all do drugs, they don’t all drink, and they aren’t all there for nefarious reasons. If you want to fight drugs, do it another way. But passing a law to forbid raves isn’t going to do it. In the words of the author of the article:
“The real story is that federal law enforcement efforts against ecstasy have proved impotent. Frustrated by this failure, they’ve targeted electronic music concerts (“raves”) not because they’re especially important targets (they’re not) but because they’re easy, and public, targets.
Unable to endure the continuing evidence of drug-war failure, the drug warriors are lashing out, hoping that the ignorant will be convinced that they’re earning their pay. Congress is playing along because, basically, Congress isn’t up to the job of riding herd on the massive drug-war bureaucracy.”
Ain’t that the truth.
darn it – i knew i should not have emailed you that article this morning *lol* !!
p.s. – i got some spare glo-sticks for the N’Awlins trip if you need some and there are plenty of bottled H2O’s in the fridge ….. need another suitcase ?!!
I want photos. I need proof of this existence.
Will you bake pies to distribute to all the kids coming down in the morning?
I felt like I was renting space in a crack den in the one rave you took me to. And they took my pen knife and never returned it. Let’s get rid of all of them. Bad music, bad manners, bad haircuts.
Dad emailed the article to me earlier. I agree that it’s ridiculous to target “glo-sticks and water” like that. And I can’t talk about MDMA, but I don’t think people need to take any “recreational” drug for any purpose. If a doctor legitimately prescribes something, that another thing…my 2 cents.
Have fun in Sin City! And by fun, I mean FUN…get me?
I thought NY or Vegas was Sin City. What do I know? I’m going for the gumbo.
Jhames, if I can find a good picture, I’ll post it for you. And give you pie. =)
And Denis, that rave was in a parking lot of a huge club in DC. In a separate instance, it was a nightclub that took your penknife did so for safety reasons. I don’t begrudge them that since it was in a dodgy area of DC.
Jen: That’s my whole point. MDMA should be removed from the Schedule 1 classification (same as heroin and crack) and reduced to something like Schedule 2, which allows further research for uses and prescriptions with no refills.
There’s no reason to make a distinction between raves and clubs. At clubs they play the same loud, thumping music, wear the same T-shirts and baggy pants, wave the same glo-sticks, etc. as they do at raves. Raves last long. That’s the only difference I can tell. Let’s start by making raves illegal and then we’ll work on the haircuts and pacifiers. The drugs and pen knives, I don’t have a problem with. And I’m a liberal.
*lol* I forgot about the pacifiers.
Jaynee, I just have a problem with anyone taking any kind of drug that is not for clear medical purposes. There’s no reason to take a drug you don’t need…even then people take way too many prescribed drugs that they probably don’t really need.
*still bummin’ that I didn’t get into the courtroom – what good is it to work for the DOJ if you can’t play the insider card?*
i JUST DID IT LAST NIGHT. NOT THE CRAPPY E BUT THR PURE MDMA, NO CRAZY STUFF. i DONT FEEL DOWN TODAY I JUST FEEL NORMAL. AND I DIDNT DO ANYTHING CRAZY LAST NIGHT…HOWEVER I HATE THE SNOW AND LAST NIGHT I WANTED TO GO PLAY IN IT. BUT I DIDNT. I JUST HAD FUN AND HUNG OUT WITH MY FRIENDS. NO SIDE EFFECTS, NO DEPRESSION, NO REGRETS. NOT EVEN THE NEXT DAY.