PARTYING HEARTY? WATCH YOURSELF

Don't Take Your Life -- Or Your Freedom -- In Your Hands For A Pre-Concert Buzz

After hearing that police charged more than 250 people at Ozzfest recently, I
was convinced the police were picking on easy targets and were somehow
violating some constitutional amendment.

Despite their politically correct statement about preventing underage drinking,
I still fumed that the concert stings were meeting an arrest quota.

I'm still not convinced targeting the concerts is fair, but the cops are doing
their jobs. Too many concert-goers make it so easy for them. You sit in the
parking lot of Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre drinking alcohol and you're not
21? What do you expect? You bring your weed and Ecstasy with plans of getting
messed up at the show? Come on, now.

All the police need are citation books and paddy wagons. Either they're going
to find you at a license checkpoint or plainclothes officers patrolling outside
and inside the venue will catch you. They're not dummies.

Alcohol and drugs flow through the music industry like an unshakable melody.
Substance abuse transcends genres and eras, whether it's the club drugs of the
rave scene or Ozzy Osbourne's highly publicized battles with addiction.

Heck, Jerry Garcia himself once held up a joint in a Rolling Stones documentary
and said, "Marijuana: exhibit A." Last year, at Widespread Panic concerts in
Alabama, a Spreadhead died of an overdose and another committed suicide.
Hip-hop's not immune to drug culture. Snoop Dogg -- need I say more?

For those who insist on breaking the law, being smarter can help keep you alive
and out of jail. I won't preach "just say no." It didn't work for me, it
doesn't work for my 19-year-old baby brother and it won't work for you.

I'll tell you like I tell him: If you're going to drink or do drugs, do it at
home, not at the concert. Make sure you have a designated driver, who won't be
drinking or using drugs. Catching a buzz isn't worth getting a police record,
losing your license or worse, your life.

Currently, 35 percent of crash deaths in North Carolina and 56 percent of those
in South Carolina are alcohol-related. Alcohol is associated with the three
leading causes of death in teenagers -- accidents, homicides and suicides,
according to the Columbia University's National Center for Addiction and
Substance Abuse.

Dead teens get politicians and parents all riled up, which puts pressure on the
police. They will try to hunt down everyone who had a hand in supplying alcohol
to the underage drinkers. To help prevent this grim scenario, law enforcement
focuses on concerts that draw young audiences or have a history of attracting
drug users.

This year alone, Alcohol Law Enforcement officers charged more than 200 people
by working Ozzfest, Phish, matchbox twenty, ZZ Top and Pearl Jam shows. Concert
arrest statistics from Charlotte-Mecklenburg police weren't available, but more
than 200 people were cited or arrested at Ozzfest on Aug. 24.

At the 2001 Ozzfest, ALE officers charged 120 people with various drug- and
alcohol-related offenses. Later that year, at the Panic concert at Cricket
Arena, Charlotte-Mecklenburg officers arrested two men who had $100,000 worth
of Ecstasy pills.

"We're not out there to catch them, we're out there to help," said Richard
Griffin, supervisor for the ALE District VIII, which includes Charlotte. "Our
main goal is to prevent underage drinking."

Whatever their motives, it's up to law-breaking concert fans to help
themselves. Dave Matthews plays Verizon on Sept. 16. If you refuse to see him
sober, do your dirt elsewhere and have a designated driver. Or risk finding
yourself in court. Or six feet under.