Dancesafe is a non-profit organization that was formed to help preserve dance culture by preserving the lives of its participants. You might have seen them at events giving out coffee and candy bracelets, but most partygoers aren’t aware of how much the organization does or what its motives and philosophy are. JIVE caught up with the head of the Atlanta chapter to discuss curbing the dangers of drug use, the need for volunteers, and why the RAVE Act isn’t the answer to keeping ravers safe from drug related deaths. I strongly encourage anyone who uses drugs, even rarely, to read what Randy had to say.
JIVE: How and why was Dance Safe started?
DANCESAFE: Emanuel Sferios started screening Ecstasy tablets for adulterants on the west coast using the Marquis reagent. It's a chemical that the police use to identify opiates and other drugs. He noticed a significant chemical reaction the reagent had that
could differentiate Ecstasy from DXM. (DXM is the active ingredient in over-the-counter cough medicines and is in the same class of drugs as ketamine, nitrous oxide, and PCP, known as dissociative anesthetics.) DXM is one of the more prevalent drugs pawned off as "Ecstasy," and it has different effects that can take an unsuspecting Ecstasy user by surprise. DXM was causing a lot of medical emergencies in the rave scene because it disables your body's ability to sweat and puts people in a hot dance environment at high risk for heat stroke.
A lot of people will get a bunk DXM pill and decide to buy another (real) Ecstasy pill and end up taking both in the same night. Both drugs are metabolized through the same liver enzyme, CYP-2D6; so combining DXM and Ecstasy makes it very difficult for your liver to break them down.
The adulterant screening program became popular among users because it helped them avoid fake pills. It became popular among promoters because there were fewer medical emergencies gaining them negative attention, and it just took off from there.
The first time I heard of Dancesafe, I was watching a 20/20 special right about the same time I had entered the rave scene. I liked what I saw and a few friends and I started printing out drug information and getting free condoms from AID Atlanta to pass out at parties. A few months later we had Dancesafe Trainers fly down from San Diego and New York City to train us to become an official chapter of Dancesafe. We're celebrating our first year of being an official chapter this September.
JIVE: What obstacles did Dance Safe encounter in the beginning?
DANCESAFE: Nationally, we've gotten a lot of negative media attention; however the media introduced myself and many others to the organization. Locally, we've had a hard time getting new volunteers. The traffic in this city makes it hard to get a big group together for a half-day training session. "Volunteer" is the key word, most all of us have jobs and some of us are in college.
JIVE: How have those problems changed in the last few years, especially in respect to things like the RAVE Act?
DANCESAFE: The RAVE Act is certainly an outright attack on our scene, but on a positive note, the first time they tried to pass it, people signed thousands of petitions and protested on the White House lawn. It was all over the national news and I think people started seeing ravers as political activists instead of the stereotype the media has given us in past years. The RAVE Act got our culture involved in politics. We're more aware of the issues facing our personal freedoms now than we were before.
JIVE: What response do you have to the media and to politicians who think that raves are the reason that people do drugs and/or overdose?
DANCESAFE: Music subcultures and drug use have never been far apart. In the 50's, there was a stir about Jazz musicians and marijuana. In the 60's it was the hippies and LSD. In the 70's it was disco and cocaine In the 80's it was gutterpunks and heroin. In the 90's it was ravers and Ecstasy, and the American government doesn't seem to get it that regardless of how strict the penalties are involving drugs, people are still going to take them. Harm reduction organizations in other parts of the world like the Netherlands, Australia, and Canada that do outreach similar to Dancesafe are getting government funding while we're still scraping by with whatever cash people leave in our donation jar at events.
JIVE: Define harm reduction, and how it is different from encouraging drug use.
DANCESAFE: Harm reduction philosophy neither condones nor condemns drug use and first accepts that despite all our efforts as a society to stop the use of drugs, people are using them anyway, and needless harm and death occur as a result. No drug use is entirely safe. All drug use contains inherent risks. Most people who choose to experiment with drugs realize there are risks involved, but they often do not know what all those risks are. Dancesafe provides truthful, non-biased information on the risks of using specific drugs, as well as ways to reduce those risks if one chooses to experiment.
Governments all over the world are adopting harm reduction strategies because they have effectively reduced medical emergencies and drug use. Abstentionist methods have not had a significant impact on the youth because they often consist of scare tactics, and exaggerations that seem to question the intelligence of drug users. The information we provide on the other hand empowers drug users by educating them and giving them facts they can use to take better care of their bodies if they continue their habits.
JIVE: What do you see as the best way of counteracting accidental overdoses?
DANCESAFE: People need to know about the drugs they are doing. The drug war creates a black market where pretty much anything goes, and some dealers will do anything to make an extra buck. In Atlanta we've tested over 30 pills, and close to half of them were not Ecstasy.
Promoters and venue owners need to take responsibility too. Every event should adequate air conditioning or chill areas, free accessible water, and someone on hand with CPR and first aid training. You can find out more about the "Safe-Settings" campaign (to provide safer venues prepared for emergencies) on the national site here.
JIVE: What services do you offer the public, over the internet, through mail, or at events?
DANCESAFE: Over the internet people can check out our national website at www.dancesafe.org.
When we set up a booth at events, we provide free condoms, earplugs, and drug information. We also take donations for adulterant screening kits. We answer questions people may have about safer sex and drug use, and refer them to other organizations like AID Atlanta for HIV testing, or Atlanta Harm Reduction Center for their needle exchange program. Sometimes we do Ecstasy adulterant screening on-site, but it involves a lot of work and we are usually short-handed.
Anyone interested in volunteering for their local Dancesafe chapter or starting a new one in their city to go here. Also, if you do choose to use drugs, please educate yourself on the dangers inherent in drug use and how best to avoid them, either via the website, or by speaking with a Dancesafe representative at an event. If you are an Ecstasy user, take the time and money and invest in an adulterant screening kit: it could save your life.
