Death, Money and Megaraves
Why Los Angeles politicians embrace a growing Ecstasy phenom that kills
Producer Haskins says megaraves can draw party amateurs who, after spending a couple hundred dollars on tickets, transportation and drugs, can overindulge. "If you spend so much money on something, you're going to care deeply about the return on your investment," he says. "OK, save up for months and then just go crazy."
In the Bay Area, the legendary Cow Palace this year tried out some harm-reduction measures — an 18-and-older policy, more paramedics, 100 undercover narcotics officers — and still saw two deaths and about 15 hospital transports at its May 29 rave.
And its Halloween rave on Oct. 29 featured "tightened security, increased efforts to try to prevent drugs from getting into the facility, increased medical teams here, and other precautions," says venue CEO Joe Barkett. But, "we basically had worse results." He cites 17 hospitalizations, mostly Ecstasy overdoses.
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Barkett says there's no factual foundation for the "safe haven" theory. "It was felt it was in the best interest of society to have these events in places that have the best preventative measures," but after seeing the Ecstasy ODs at the Cow Palace in Daly City, he told his board of directors he was "unable to tell you with any confidence that any increased level of security or other measure will prevent these kinds of overdoses from occurring."
Barkett has been in the concert business for more than 25 years, including facilitating Grateful Dead shows. Anyone who says regular fatalities and extensive overdosing at megaraves are a normal part of mass gatherings, such as rock concerts, is wildly off-base, he says. "Most of the concerts that we have, the traditional concerts, do not result in the kind of overdoses that put people in life-threatening conditions."
Coliseum commissioner Caruso is looking northward and wondering if L.A. should just do it the Cow Palace way. "We've got ER rooms filled up by people who are using drugs," he says. "I know there's a revenue connection to this ... but it does not outweigh the risks."
Reach the writer at djromero@laweekly.com.
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