Party Vibe

the worst part of it is this lad probably lives really near to me.

I’d add as well that its not a case that he will bang up once or twice and drop dead but its a slippery slope -the “comedown illnesses” will slowly get worse and worse as this lad continues to stress his body (even people who don’t inject but regularly take drugs can do this if they aren’t careful)

although in your case the crossover was the other way round it just shows how easy it is, and there is a lot of smack around here with our proximity to two major ports.

Fair enough you’ve sorted yourself out now and are doing a lot of good for peopel but I remember you posting a fairly woeful tale of health problems which you are still suffering from, and you are way younger than I am!

he doesn’t just hurt himself though (same as the K-heads who fall off stuff and need to be patched up)

he’ll get made to listen eventually, either via the NHS or having to detox in prison – but people like that can take a few others down with them – friends and family, even other ravers whom he doesn’t know all get affected.

Its things like that which make the locals and cops and other authorities feel justified in shutting raves down (there have been 3 ambulances called out just since March )

The NHS do try not to judge but I know for a fact the emergency dept staff (some who are only in their 20s or 30s and like parties too) do get a bit pissed off when they see scarce resources sucked up by young people needing treatment for stuff that could have been avoided with a bit more self-control.

these are times when you have to be a bit harsh and actually stop encouraging the lad to go partying or take drugs if he can’t/won’t control himself. If needles start turning up at our local parties then thats gonna be yet another thing the antis can use against us (and the parties here are being scrutinised by the media..)..

Don’t let a few selfish people fuck up what seems to be the one of the best party scenes in this country despite all the pressures against it..

me too, especially after the wider fallout these things cause

just a couple of months afterwards I heard of more stories of people injecting in that same town, This wasn’t bravado or posturing, but people genuinely concerned about their mates but powerless to stop it as their mates say “well its all drugs innit”

That party (where I heard about these stories, although there was no evidence of needles being used at the event) was later very roughly shut down by 100 or so cops in riot gear.

often the cops justify the harsh clampdowns this by saying “we need to be firm to deter youths from getting into regular patterns of drug use via the rave scene” (its followers are after all often unrepentant about drug culture)

The NHS and councils justify working with the cops to control and deter drug users (including increasing clampdowns on licensed events)

and society stands behind them and says “more should be done”

loads of info is being passed between agencies behind the scenes. Not always about individuals, but collective judgements of whether raves and the wider drugs culture they feed into are a problem to society.