Party Vibe

@Savvydravvy 510868 wrote:

The police searched ALL 20,000? And only found 83 people with drugs? saaaaay whaaaaaat?

Searches are carried out by private security guards (same as in UK) who only have limited power of search, supposedly less than even UK rentaguards. Those found with drugs are handed over to the Police, but the Police insist on and oversee the search. No search == no events license. Rentaguards cannot search people more closely, only cops can in a private area (like a mobile police station) so much stuff gets through in smaller amounts.

Given the amount of photos/videos taken of these events, and the Dutch skills in surveillance and CCTV (Philips made the first affordable CCTV cameras for small business in the 1980s) I also suspect cops have their targets mapped out already and are concentrating on heavy users (who might already be known both to Police and health authorities due to rare behaviour on the comedown) and small-time dealers, over and above non problematic users.

in any case €23 000 of extra public funding to the Police and other services (some goes to the health authoritiy and is used to fund the pills testing centres) is not to be sneezed at. indeed it is the reason why these events are allowed to continue. (events in England have been stopped because the Police could not get similar amounts to cover their costs from the promoters). Because NL cannot openly legalise and tax pills or they would breach UN anti drugs laws, and if they put €2 onto the ticket price (which is usualy much more affordable thna here) then “non drug users” will complain that its unfair, but this is just a way of offsetting any problems caused by drug use.

@Savvydravvy 510917 wrote:

So certain individuals are picked and ‘followed’ by police and CCTV, then fined in order for both the party and the police to continue with their side of the bargain?

yes indeed – not just the CCTV in towns but also using the photos, youtubes etc. but cops do that here as well, especially in East Anglia which is only across the water. I also read a Utrecht university paper mentioning how detectives are present at some raves – apparently a combination of very pretty tall blonde girls and tattooed muscle marys, so they can attract both genders.

one thing I’ve learned in recent years (since my Dutch has improved and I can read the books and newspapers) is that dealers tend now to be much younger and from the lower socioeconomic groups, such as farmworkers/factory workers (NL still has these industries, similar to East Anglia) rather than uni students (I think you can be chucked off your course if caught dealing as it might be treated as “witwassen” (money laundering)).

The surveillance cultures is how things have worked in the Netherlands for decades. its not even a conspiracy, its how they roll out there. in Amsterdam some houses don’t even have curtains on the windows because the folk know their neighbours will watch and judge them anyway. The Big Brother reality show first came from Holland in the late 90s and was heavily branded alongside the trance scene of those days…

bookmark this, and keep looking. That will be your best bet, unless you can get a testing kit.

Pill Reports – Ecstasy Test Results Database by Enlighten