Should EDM festivals be held responsible for these recent deaths related to drugs? Everyone is accusing the electronic dance music scene to lead to drug binge and eventually death. It’s true that at least 7 kids attending these festivals around the country have died from MDMA overdoses since March, and the Electric Zoo festival on Randalls Island, that Iman attended, was even shut down after the death of two people. And this cannot be good publicity for these sorts of events.
So DJs Diplo and Jillionaire recently talked to Rolling Stone, strongly defending their scene (and their livelihood):
‘The generation that comes next is always going to rebel against the generation that came before, and they’re always going to be at odds with each other,’ declared Jillionaire, ‘It doesn’t matter what anyone who’s 50-years-old has to say about these festivals. How many kids go to a football game and drink too much beer?’
I don’t think this is making any sense, lots of people die because of alcohol too, I don’t see how a kid taking drugs and oding at a music festival is more rebellious than a 50 something getting drunk at a football game and having an accident while driving home! Both things are stupid behavior.
Diplo added:
‘How many kids drive a car when they shouldn’t? The drug thing happens, and this is the first time music writers can have something to write about. Electronic music is so young, and these audiences are full of 18 – no, 13-year-olds – and people who are 30, and 30 is old. Music writers and critics are old. When I was younger and living in Philadelphia, there was a crazy heroin problem. I had a lot of friends who died from Oxycontin and heroin overdoses. No one wrote about those kids. When 6,000 kids party for three days and two kids die, it’s a story because the writers don’t write about electronic music, as it’s flat and boring all the time.’
Music writers are old? Should I get offended? But when he says that EDM is flat and boring, he has a valid point! I am not sure of what is he trying to accomplish by bashing his own scene. In any case, drugs have always been there, nothing is new at this level. But what he said later was a bit more surprising:
‘It’s going to sound weird, but we need to teach kids how to do drugs, the same way we teach them about drinking responsibly and having safe sex. If you’re going to go to a festival, drink water for six days before you get there; don’t drink no alcohol. If you’re going to do a pill and a half, don’t do four more and then pass out, overheat, and die of cardiac arrest. Instead of acting like drugs don’t exist, acknowledge that drugs will be at a festival and address them.’
I am quite confused about his statement, is there a safe way to do drugs? I don’t think so Mr. Diplo, it all depends of your metabolism, genetics and physiology; half a pill may kill someone with a weak heart while somebody else will never pass out even after taking a dose to kill an elephant. It’s so subjective, so relative. I am not against drugs, people should be able to try whatever they want, but risks are always, always there. There is no how-to-do-drugs-safely method to teach kids, it’s ridiculous! But he wasn’t even done:
‘We’re such a conservative culture that we’d rather not talk about the things kids want to do, even though they’re going to do them anyway. We’d rather ignore it to solve the problem. In Florida, where I’m from, drugs have been a part of club culture since day one. Kids have always been going to raves in the woods. 20 years ago, Orlando was one of the first places to have rave culture, and we learned how to do drugs. It’s going to happen; you can’t control it. Persecuting a festival is not going to help it because kids are going to do them regardless. Hell, they’ll do them in their houses. That’s why crystal meth is a problem in America. Drugs are a big problem in America, because we have money to spend and a culture that wants to be turnt up all the time.’
Florida learned how to do drugs? Next time there is a drug-related death in Florida – because the sunshine state is no different – Diplo should swallow his words. Ye,s drugs are and will always be a problem, yes, the so-called war on drugs is a joke, but drugs aren’t just an American problem, they exist everywhere, people overdose all over the world and his last sentences demonstrate he has no clue. Drugs aren’t a big problem because we have too much money, crystal meth isn’t expensive and unfortunately done by lots of desperate poor people… drugs are not always a pass-time for bored rich kids, drug addiction is a serious disease. But Diplo would be out of business without MDMA, and this can explain a lot.