RAVE LAWS PROMOTE SAFETY, EDUCATION OF ECSTASY'S EFFECTS

It was a crowded Saturday night at a local rave. Having passed out over
4,000 "this is your brain on ecstasy" postcards to ravers waiting to get
into the club, I moved over to one side of the line and saw a 22-year old
curled up in a ball, being comforted by one of the club's "bouncers." I
approached them: "Is everything alright." I said. "Yeah, he's just a little
messed up--no big deal."

"Um, can he talk. What has he taken tonight. He looks very bad," I said,
frustrated at the bouncer's obvious indifference.

He replied, "He's fine. Here is the club promoter now."

"I think this guy needs to be taken to the emergency room," I exclaimed.

"Nah, he is okay. This is what happens to people sometimes. It's not our
responsibility to take care of him," she assuredly stated.

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't need help," I said.

"He is breathing and conscious, he does not need to see anyone," another
club promoter came and said. The promoter continued, "We could get sued for
this--for drugs in here."

Completely frustrated, I said, "That does not matter. Just because one is
breathing does not mean that one is not in danger. He needs to see someone.
Now."

The promoter replied, "You are out here on your moral crusade, and whenever
people are on a crusade they never tell all the facts. There are both sides
to the story."

One hour later, as I was about to leave, the scene was the same. I called
9-1-1 and told them to get here immediately--someone was in imminent danger.

Scenes like these are commonplace at today's raves. Often knowing that drug
use is occurring and realizing the profit potential of such use, club
promoters turn a blind eye. For those who are worried about the threat that
ecstasy poses on today's minds and today's rave culture, the pending
federal RAVE Act and a similar one like it on the state level should serve
as a sigh of relief.

Unlike other illicit drugs, ecstasy use has been on the rise over the past
20 years. With more use, deaths have increased and these drugs have been
linked to long-term brain damage. Contrary to what some groups will tell
you, there is no such thing as safe drug use.

Like cocaine in the late 1970s, ecstasy is often looked at as a harmless
drug. In fact, some of the same people who tout ecstasy use as being benign
are also guilty of doing the same about cocaine twenty years ago. Though
ecstasy was developed 80 years ago for psychiatrists, scientists noted
thereafter that the drug was being abused and that its medical use was
ineffective. Some of the latest scientific research points to evidence that
ecstasy can lead to long-lasting, perhaps permanent, changes in the
brain--specifically in the growth of the hormone serotonin and in its
neurotransmitter.

These bills would make it harder for drugs to enter raves and would impose
serious consequences on club promoters hungry for profits. The rave culture
of the 1980s, as many would argue, was not about drugs--it was about the
dancing. Sadly, today's raves are almost always connected with rampant,
widespread drug use. To return to the original culture, these legislative
bills are a move in the right direction.

Coupled with strong prevention and education efforts--based on science, not
urban myth--they have the potential to strongly impact the worrying rise in
ecstasy use, deaths and destruction.