“This is it! I have a meeting scheduled at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy on Friday, October 30! Others who will be at the meeting include Rob Goldsmith, Tammy Anderson, PhD, and Emanuel Sferios. This is huge! I have great expectations that this will help put an end to the unintended consequences of a law that needs to be updated that is creating far too many deaths and medical emergencies at electronic music events. We’ve got this, Shelley!”
– Dede Goldsmith, Amend The RAVE Act Campaign
“Drug policy should not endanger public safety.”
These words ring loud and clear, and their intention is not stifled by their utter and honest simplicity. The government’s role is to protect and ensure the livelihood and happiness of its people, but some seem to have forgotten that.
Dede Goldsmith is doing her part to help make that a reality (you can sign the petition here), but first we must step back in time.
August 31, 2013 – a tragedy occurs. While attending a dance music event in Washington D.C., University of Virginia honor roll student Shelley Goldsmith suffered the fate that we all will one day succumb to. Death. But why?
Shelley suffered heat stroke after ingesting MDMA at an EDM event. Not an overdose. Heat stroke.
If this scenario sounds commonplace that’s because, unfortunately, it is. News stories fly around the nation detailing deaths at such events as if it’s an inevitable fact of life and nothing can be done about it.
That line of thinking is complete bulls***, and it must change. If we can prevent occurrences like this, then it is our responsibility to do so.
So what is the root cause, drug use?
At its core, yes, drugs can and do lead to deaths. That’s a fact. So what do we do? Eliminate drug use is the easy and obvious answer.
Well, after decades of work and trillions of dollars spent on the ill-advised yet highly profitable War on Drugs, drug use statistics have failed to budge in the slightest. It failed.
Since that approach doesn’t work, then our next logical option might (and should) lead us to education, harm reduction, and treatment.
The focus should be safety.
That is the goal of Dede Goldsmith’s campaign is to revisit the RAVE Act, amending it to allow concert promoters and venue owners to educate attendees and provide the knowledge that some may need to survive.
Be that mandated free water and chill-out stations, education and harm-reduction services like DanceSafe, or more – it doesn’t matter. We’re talking about daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers. They’re not faceless, nameless caricatures of the party generation; they’re people.
Please, at a minimum take some time to research the RAVE Act and determine for yourself the action that you will take after digesting this info. Maybe it’s nothing. But, then again, maybe it’s something as little as signing a petition to creating an organization to facilitate help and change.
The choice is yours.
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