Recently, many raves around Los Angeles have led to deaths, drug overdoses and many arrests.
This is the description of the new legislation:
‘Raves foster an environment that threatens the health and safety of our youth, the introduction of AB 74 is the first step toward eliminating these dangerous events.
AB 74 will prohibit raves on public property and prevent raves on private property unless a business owner has a license to host such an event. The bill is not intended to impact traditional music concerts and sporting events. AB 74 is about cracking down on raves that harbor drug use and lead to teenage deaths.’
This is true that there is a heavy consumption of drugs, especially ecstasy during these events, and last June, a 15-year-old died from a drug overdose, and over 100 people were hospitalized at the Electric Daisy Carnival held at the Memorial Coliseum.
The massive crowd that these events drain has led to huge problems, but curiously, raves in New York and Miami have not sent as many young people to the hospital.
And the solution is not easy: Last May, the Cow Palace in the Bay Area tried out some harm-reduction measures, like an 18-and-older policy, more paramedics, 100 undercover narcotics officers, but still the rave led to two deaths and about 15 hospitalizations.
So why all these problems in LA and California? Why is it so unique to the city of angels? Perhaps one factor is that they are Megaraves, the Sports Arena and the Coliseum being the biggest rave venues in the nation.
Of course many people are protesting against this new law, saying that money was being made (which has led a lot of politicians to close their eyes on the incidents for a long time) and saying that thousand of people actually have really enjoyed these events.
Tonight there is the ‘Together as One’ at the Sports Arena in LA, advertised as largest New Year’s Eve dance music festival and they expect,… a lot of people.