As Tone Deaf reported yesterday, long running Channel Nine current affairs program 60 Minutes recently ran a report that put forth a strong and reasoned case for introducing pill-testing at music festivals and dance parties.
The report saw presenter Tara Brown travelling to Austria and The Netherlands, where pill-checking is mandatory. The program has worked so well that use of drugs like ecstasy and MDMA has even dropped.
It was exciting to see a mainstream news program like 60 Minutes side with reason and show an understanding of adolescent psychology, instead of bandying about the ‘Just Say No’ mantra beloved by the police and government.
Case in point, Hard Summer festival took place in Los Angeles over the weekend and tragically, it ended with the deaths of two young women. One was just 18 years old and the other just 19, both are suspected to have overdosed on drugs.
So what’s the reaction of local government officials? They want to ban electronic music festivals, of course.
As Digital Music News reports, First District Supervisor Hilda L. Solis has already announced she will put forth a motion to prohibit “these kinds of events” on County owned land, until they get around to conducting an investigation.
It’s precisely the kind of attitude 60 Minutes made clear was counterproductive. Drugs are a part of electronic music events the same way they are a part of rock festivals or the way alcohol is part of sporting events. But no one bans football if a fight or even a riot breaks out.
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Are drugs legal? No. Does anyone condone taking them? Of course not. But does it happen anyway? Yes. Taking a prohibition-era attitude towards them clearly isn’t working and it’s time for government officials, like those in LA, to wake up.
As DMN notes, the issue was heavily discussed at this year’s EDMbiz music conference. Music festivals in Canada and Europe have an easier time educating festivalgoers, allowing them to understand what they are getting themselves into when taking drugs.
Of course, that’s not to say that promoters are completely absolved of any role in this. If anything, the push for education measures as well as pill-testing and/or amnesty bins should be coming from the organisers of these events first and foremost.
