before i start i must say THIS ARTICLE SUX
it was featured in the gold coast's bulletin newspaper yesterday, sorry i don't have a link so here goes some major typing:
Warm summer day. Rain, hail or shine. The atmosphere is electric as the crowd presses to secure the all-important wrist straps that ensure entree to the various venues within the Big Day Out precinct at Parklands (gold coast).
One colour if you're under 18; another if you're over and might want to buy an alcoholic drink. And you will need proof of age.
Drugs are a no-no here, but no matter how well the event is run - and the Gold Coast Big Day is conducted well - those who feel the need have already popped their pills.
Ecstasy or Special K, speed or cocaine, amphetamines. The danger comes not just from the drugs which may or may not be regarded as 'safe' but from the dehydration that accompanies their use as 40,000 plus gyarate and soak up the music provided by 69 bands.
The organisers are well aware of the problem of dehydration, even among those who wouldn't use so much as a headache tablet, never mind a designer drug. The sprayed water is aprreciated as the headliners like Limp Bizkit and Australia's Powderfinger perform.
At some Gold Coast clubs water is a huge seller, alcoholic drinks less of a turn-on when drugs like Ecstasy are in vogue. The ironic twist to the drug scene is there are less alcohol-induced fights at major events like the Big Day Out.
"People would prefere to make love than war" says one regular.
But fluid intake is important.
"Drink plenty of water, take it easy and don't surf" is the advice of St John's Ambulance Southport Superintendent Cerena Reeves, who keeps her own counsel where drug-taking is concerned> What really concerns her is the (crowd) surfing which can result in spinal injuries - the madcap mosh pit is discouraged by the organisers - while dehydration, cuts the bruises are the major treatment requirements.
But there has been less evidence, and less incidence of drugs over the last few years = a fact regular and relatively sober Big Day OUters will readily confirm.
Sadly, the same cannot always be said of rave parties and clubs where often more than half the crowd may have taken recreational drugs and most have arrived already 'sorted', equipped with ecstasy, speed and cocaine they hope will give them an uplifting and lasting dance experience.
Most have scroed their pills and powders through friends or friends of friends "as a rule of thumb, never ever buy you drugs on the dance floor" said a regular clubber and dance partygoer.
"Yu don't know what you're buying and you don't know who you are buying from. There are some lethal mixes out there and you could be getting something that could make you very sick. Let's face ita , all pills are poison
"Besides you could be buying from an undercover cop and you don't want to risk jail for a $50 pill"
It's an alternative young girls lik Deborah Hanger and Anna wood never experienced. Brisbane's Deborah, 18, died in August 1994 and Sydney's Anna 15 in Oct 1995, after each had tried an illegal drug.
Interstate clubbers say they usually pay between $40 and $60 a pill, depending on quantity bought and their relationship with the dealer.
the dealers are usually clubbers themselves, often young professionals with regular day jobs. Just helping their friends out and making some extra cash on the side.
Opinion varies about whether the drugs are an essential part of the dance music experience - at either clubs or 'raves', which are large-scale, one-off dance party events for upto 15,000 people in empty warehouses or outdoors, smaller and rare on the Gold Coast. "Up to 90 per cent of people at raves are.....off their dials, but at a weekly club maybe only about 20 per cent would be taking pills," said a 23 year old.
"the drugs are maybe half teh scene," said Josh, 32 "I never understood dance music until I took the drugs for the first time about two years ago. Bt these days I go to clubs for the music and the community feel - the infectious bass beat and the tribal euphoria.
"So if I take drugs at all they are just the icing on the cake."
Only a handfull of girls report ever being offered drugs in a club or at a dance party. But atleast half the men say they have been approached in some way by a dealer or their scouts.
Simon, 28, said: "At a rave party recently this guy was wandering around the dance floor, saying over and over again 'E, speed,acid' LIke some kind of matra."
But Chantelle, 22, a hardcore clubber,sets the record straight: "The dealers don't go out and sell, they sit in a corner and wait for the customers to come to them."
"If you want drugs, you ask someone and that will lead yo to someone else, and so on. It's lik a domino effect, with the pieces falling inwards, not going outwards. It's not like the dealer is walking around with a big capital E printed on his back."
The club crowd is youn, good looking, hip and fit. Only about 10 per cent are smoking cigarettes and about a third appear to be drinking alcohol.,
"Most people might buy one drink when they arrive," said Jay, 27. "But at 10 bucks a drink, it's just too expensive to keep drinking all night and within a couple of hours everyone is too busy dancing their butts off guzzling water anyway."
Jordan, 29, said he much preferred ecstasy to alcohol and believed the only key difference was that alcohol was legal.
"You can keep dancing all night, there's no aggression and everyone is friendly," he said. "IF someone bumps into you, they smile and say sorry instead of giving each other a dirty look.
TThe next morning...you can get a bit depressed and the come-down varies on the type of pill, which is unpredictable.
"I used to worry about what I was taking, but now, so long as I buy it (ecstasy) through someone I know, there's less of a risk. we've all had a bad experience at some point without dying."
The Big Day Out will doubtless have its share of drug takers, but that is a fact of life- and sadly of death- and will not spil a great event for those who attend on Sunday.
********************************************
------------------
'just wait until this song is finished then i'll go
'
it was featured in the gold coast's bulletin newspaper yesterday, sorry i don't have a link so here goes some major typing:
Warm summer day. Rain, hail or shine. The atmosphere is electric as the crowd presses to secure the all-important wrist straps that ensure entree to the various venues within the Big Day Out precinct at Parklands (gold coast).
One colour if you're under 18; another if you're over and might want to buy an alcoholic drink. And you will need proof of age.
Drugs are a no-no here, but no matter how well the event is run - and the Gold Coast Big Day is conducted well - those who feel the need have already popped their pills.
Ecstasy or Special K, speed or cocaine, amphetamines. The danger comes not just from the drugs which may or may not be regarded as 'safe' but from the dehydration that accompanies their use as 40,000 plus gyarate and soak up the music provided by 69 bands.
The organisers are well aware of the problem of dehydration, even among those who wouldn't use so much as a headache tablet, never mind a designer drug. The sprayed water is aprreciated as the headliners like Limp Bizkit and Australia's Powderfinger perform.
At some Gold Coast clubs water is a huge seller, alcoholic drinks less of a turn-on when drugs like Ecstasy are in vogue. The ironic twist to the drug scene is there are less alcohol-induced fights at major events like the Big Day Out.
"People would prefere to make love than war" says one regular.
But fluid intake is important.
"Drink plenty of water, take it easy and don't surf" is the advice of St John's Ambulance Southport Superintendent Cerena Reeves, who keeps her own counsel where drug-taking is concerned> What really concerns her is the (crowd) surfing which can result in spinal injuries - the madcap mosh pit is discouraged by the organisers - while dehydration, cuts the bruises are the major treatment requirements.
But there has been less evidence, and less incidence of drugs over the last few years = a fact regular and relatively sober Big Day OUters will readily confirm.
Sadly, the same cannot always be said of rave parties and clubs where often more than half the crowd may have taken recreational drugs and most have arrived already 'sorted', equipped with ecstasy, speed and cocaine they hope will give them an uplifting and lasting dance experience.
Most have scroed their pills and powders through friends or friends of friends "as a rule of thumb, never ever buy you drugs on the dance floor" said a regular clubber and dance partygoer.
"Yu don't know what you're buying and you don't know who you are buying from. There are some lethal mixes out there and you could be getting something that could make you very sick. Let's face ita , all pills are poison
"Besides you could be buying from an undercover cop and you don't want to risk jail for a $50 pill"
It's an alternative young girls lik Deborah Hanger and Anna wood never experienced. Brisbane's Deborah, 18, died in August 1994 and Sydney's Anna 15 in Oct 1995, after each had tried an illegal drug.
Interstate clubbers say they usually pay between $40 and $60 a pill, depending on quantity bought and their relationship with the dealer.
the dealers are usually clubbers themselves, often young professionals with regular day jobs. Just helping their friends out and making some extra cash on the side.
Opinion varies about whether the drugs are an essential part of the dance music experience - at either clubs or 'raves', which are large-scale, one-off dance party events for upto 15,000 people in empty warehouses or outdoors, smaller and rare on the Gold Coast. "Up to 90 per cent of people at raves are.....off their dials, but at a weekly club maybe only about 20 per cent would be taking pills," said a 23 year old.
"the drugs are maybe half teh scene," said Josh, 32 "I never understood dance music until I took the drugs for the first time about two years ago. Bt these days I go to clubs for the music and the community feel - the infectious bass beat and the tribal euphoria.
"So if I take drugs at all they are just the icing on the cake."
Only a handfull of girls report ever being offered drugs in a club or at a dance party. But atleast half the men say they have been approached in some way by a dealer or their scouts.
Simon, 28, said: "At a rave party recently this guy was wandering around the dance floor, saying over and over again 'E, speed,acid' LIke some kind of matra."
But Chantelle, 22, a hardcore clubber,sets the record straight: "The dealers don't go out and sell, they sit in a corner and wait for the customers to come to them."
"If you want drugs, you ask someone and that will lead yo to someone else, and so on. It's lik a domino effect, with the pieces falling inwards, not going outwards. It's not like the dealer is walking around with a big capital E printed on his back."
The club crowd is youn, good looking, hip and fit. Only about 10 per cent are smoking cigarettes and about a third appear to be drinking alcohol.,
"Most people might buy one drink when they arrive," said Jay, 27. "But at 10 bucks a drink, it's just too expensive to keep drinking all night and within a couple of hours everyone is too busy dancing their butts off guzzling water anyway."
Jordan, 29, said he much preferred ecstasy to alcohol and believed the only key difference was that alcohol was legal.
"You can keep dancing all night, there's no aggression and everyone is friendly," he said. "IF someone bumps into you, they smile and say sorry instead of giving each other a dirty look.
TThe next morning...you can get a bit depressed and the come-down varies on the type of pill, which is unpredictable.
"I used to worry about what I was taking, but now, so long as I buy it (ecstasy) through someone I know, there's less of a risk. we've all had a bad experience at some point without dying."
The Big Day Out will doubtless have its share of drug takers, but that is a fact of life- and sadly of death- and will not spil a great event for those who attend on Sunday.
********************************************
------------------
'just wait until this song is finished then i'll go
'