Providing fans with the ultimate fun experience but drugs are making a more public appearance than ever before. Equal time correspondant Katie Orellana begins our coverage. Concerts are exciting. Live music, bright lights and good company make for memorable celebrations but the thrill of it all has lead to some people to try a new way to enhance their experience at the show. Drugs, particularly ecstasy and mdma otherwise known as molly have made a strong appearance in the party scene although headline after headline highlight death tolls at Music Festivals, how many concert goers have considered the negative effects of these drugs at this Music Festival in santa cruz we ask concert goers whether drugs can enhance the concert experience are really worth it . Im a mother so i rather them not have to do that to enjoy themselves and music is always a great way to be happy and dance around and you can get high on that and you dont have to get high on drugs right . [laughs] theres like so much to gain from these experiences here so i dont think you should let like drugs use get in the way of like having a good time, you know . You dont need that to like enjoy yourself. Others say the decision is ultimately up to the person considering taking molly and ecstasy so i feel like allowing it in just providing support for people who need it, you know, maybe a medic or someone there to talk people down if theyre having a bad time, would probably be more useful than laws against it. I think, you know, its their thing if you choose to do that responsibly without negatively impacting everyone else then thats your freedom to do so and i think it should be allowed. Santa cruz Music Festival also hold lectures the day of the event to discuss different issues. A cannabis lecture was held but it wasnt to educated fans. It was to promote a new pot selling business. Santa cruz Music Festival organizer, sam working says that drugs arent an issue at this type of festival. Of course people do drugs everywhere i dont really think Music Festivals have. A huge impact on that, but i mean, yeah theres definitely festival drug cultural are combined. Especially more in the rave scene i guess you would say. Were more like all encompassing Music Festival. I mean weve been here about three years and we havent had any problems with drugs use or anything like that so. Music festivals like coachella and edc are doing what they can to ensure their customers have a safe, fun, and positive experience but what happens when these type of concerts end up on a College Campus . Well tackle that issue next when we come back well take a look at how drugs are effecting the music scene at San Jose State University. [music] [music] welcome back. Weve seen how party drugs such as molly and ecstasy have affected the community as a whole. But what happens when these drugs show up on campus events . We continue our report these people are holding tickets for one of the hottest shows in town jack yo lantern one of about four raves held at the San Jose State University event center every year. Most of these fans are from a younger demographic when hosting a concert like the school takes precautions. University Police Captain alan cavallo says certain concerts require more attention than others. I cant think of one single concert that was a younger crowd concert that didnt have an issue. I mean weve obviously had some other concerts that are you know us old people would go to and we havent really had any incidents. But anything that involved any of the younger kids we seem to have incidents which occur, that are drug related or alcohol related University Police and emergency medical technicans have vehicles right outside the event center the night of concerts to aid anyone who may need immediate assistance. The police also have an amnesty bin routine where right before the show starts officers encourage concert goers to turn in any contraband that they may have. Those who throw away Illegal Drugs before the show will not receive any sort of punishment. But not everyone empties their pockets and thats where the real danger lies ecstasy and molly are both drugs and enhanced the experience one has at a show they release serotonin and a result make the person feel an intense form of euphoria. However the drugs do have negative effects. Wellness and Health Coordinator liz romero says that there are far worse things that can occur other than having a bad trip. Students or people taking it can get really dehydrated, to the point where they like need to get medically transported because they need their body to be hydrated again and to get fluids into their system. So there can be people who pass out, there can be again seizures, there can people who also pass away from the use so it can go to that extreme. Ecstasy and molly release so much serotonin once the person comes down they may fall into depression. Campus administrators are well aware of these sort of situations. Sjsu interim president susan martin says her team gets involved with trying to avoid students to get transported. We had did some things at our prior campus even backing up to taking a look what what concert should be booked and what should our policy be. So, i will have to get up to speed on how these have been booked and what were doing to make sure that were taking care of our students on our campus. Although the fans may be the ones taking the drugs, ultimately it does effect the artist. Hiphop artist lafa taylor says taking a drug is not necessary for the fans to enjoy his show. I think that a festival goes hand and hand with expansion of the mind. And i dont think that anything is required to experience that, besides the music and all the people youre around and the amazing art thats around and all the different workshops going on and that is totally means enough. Regardless of the warning against drugs according to the miami herald 72 percent of people admitted to some form of a drug at a Music Festival. 80 percent of those admitted that it was either ecstasy or molly these numbers are for raves nationwide when we come back well sit down with students, the event center official, and University Police, to discuss the two sides of this story. Stay with us [music] [music] welcome back to this edition of equal time. Today were going to be talking about raves. The music, the fun, the issues and the problems. Lets meet our guests hi, im Erika Neilson a Communication Studies major here at sjsu. Hi, im aiko allan im a film major at sjsu. My name is tony lee im a Police Detective with the University Police department. And im cathy busalacchi, the executive director of the student union. Hi, im keithy orellana and i am the student correspondent for this episode of equal time. Well thank you for setting up this story because im looking forward to learning a lot here. When i was in college we called them parties now you call them raves and erika you just said you went to one recently for the very first time. Mmhmm. Yeah, it was a really great experience i went with a lot of my Close Friends so i felt really comfortable going into that kind of environment and it was very positive and i really enjoyed it. I would go to another one. And right next to you is a lady whos a veteran she went to a lot of them youve been to one in vegas you said, and a variety of others. Yeah. What were they like . Um theyre really great. My first one was last year and just from last year only march so ive been going to a lot of raves after that. Ive been kind of addicted to them, because theyre really positive and fun environment, the people especially. Its a really great place. And for those of us, very quickly, those of us who have never been inside a rave, as we know it today, what goes on . Is it live music . Is it a combination of things . What happens . Yeah, so its live music. There are djs that come in depending on whether its festival or just a show. Theres. It can be like multiple djs and they come in and they play their sets and so they remix songs they play some of their own and the people there just kind of like there to experience the music and really enjoy themselves. So it sounds like a fun environment and cathy you get the wonderful pleasure of scheduling these things at san jose state yeah, i work with my staff and plan for the events, and you know, and rates of weve had them at the event center now for about four years. And we get better and better at actually producing them, so yea and its what students are looking for right now. And you never need tony tony never has a problem, therell always well done, right nobody gets out of line. Well there are effects of having these electric dance music concerts at our campus. Theres a lot of stereotypes of that are just drugs and alcohol involved at these events. And sometimes people who overdose on drugs or they cant handle the drugs in their system and that does lead to medical aid calls. Right, and i think thats what people at home who watch the news sees these type of stories periodically and wonder, why are they doing that on a College Campus . What would you say cathy . I guess what i would say is you know, i look back when i was in college and saw music or a show, you know . You look back and you had the grateful dead. Theres different times in our periods where there was always drugs or alcohol involved its how you actually plan for them and what you do to prepare for them. You know, i think what students are interested in. Do we wanna keep our students here on campus or like do they want to go to San Francisco or to the civic . So would you rather have the students drive to San Francisco, party, and then drive back and be in a car . Or do we figure out how do we maintain and handle and work with University Police to make it a safe environment, or safer environment for our students. That seems logical and makes sense try to be safe and make these things happen keithy, when you were researching this story, what made you want to talk about raves . I think the stereotype in itself. I love concerts. Ive never been to an actual rave, but i love to just the idea of going to a concert and seeing a show and falling in love with the music and being there. But every single time i would go to a concert i would always hear my mom, like on the phone, telling me like be careful if they give you a drug its not a candy its a drug. And im just like theres always this stereotype that shows automatically have to have some sort of drug or alcohol to enhance the experience. So it made me really curious to see like what are the facts and what is the experience like against each other like is it true, like what the media portrays. Well lets ask our experts here. Have you had that experience where youve seen drugs or issues with drugs . Either of you . Yeah, you encounter a lot of people that do drugs, but all you can do is be mentally prepared for it. And know how to prevent overdosing, like these people. You got to hydrate yourself, of course, its hot in there. Theres thousands of people packed in that little room, so you got to hydrate. You got to pace yourself, you just got to be prepared. You cant just go in there and do whatever and again its not a silly question for those who have never been at a rave, why would you want to endure music that way . Isnt there a better way to enjoy music . I think that for some people that the drugs that, like keithy said it does enhance the music experience, it makes it just like makes the music better. But i know like some people they dont dont need drugs to go to raves. Like i know people that go sober and they have like the time of their life, where they dont feel the need that drugs are necessary. True and not everyone does drugs in college lets be very clear about that. And most of our students are quiet responsible. But tony when theyre not, what can a student do to protect him or herself . In these type of environments . The easiest thing is to not take things from people you dont know. And the people that do choose to experience and experiment with drugs they need to know what theyre taking a lot of people dont know. Its someone thats there and selling them stuff and they dont know what theyre taking so if its your decision and it is illegal but if they choose to make that decision and try it and experiment with it they need to know what theyre ingesting into their body. Cause a lot of times they dont and do you ever get any tips from the Police Department either on campus off campus that there is a drug issue or there may be a drug issue . And if so do you have to plan for that or how do you deal with it . We do prepare for it that like everyone has said there is a stereotype at these raves, there is drug use. So we work with the event center, we prepare to get as much medical staff there is possible. We have ambulances on standby here to transport people if it gets to a point where they need to get transported to a hospital. Has it ever been that bad . Yes it has and has there been any fatalities or anything like that . I havent experienced or known of any fatalities that happened here. Has there been any negative backlash that you have received from alumni or parents that say why are we still doing it and why are we hosting these events . Yeah, honestly we have and what were trying to do is really say, how do we educate students . And so each event we get better at trying to prepare for it. You know, like our most recent event we had probably over 100, close to a 150 different types of personal on staff. Whether it be medical, whether it be what theyre called plur angels which are peers that walk the floor. You know, they look to see if anyone either is inebriated or having a hard time. Well actually have then emergency personal come to them and help them, pull them out and then its really about hydration. I think she mentioned that earlier. So actually then pulling them out having almost what we call triage area. Where we spend some time with them, hydrate them, and within an hour or two theyre back out there again. And you know, i was there recently at an event and the energy is amazing. I was really amazed by it. It can be a lot of fun but we also hear of stories of flumes of smoke a lot of it marijuana lofting through the air what do we do with that . How do we deal with that . We handle it when we see it. There are thousands of people in a small compact area, so its hard to be every where at once. But when we see it happening in front of us we handle it. We either take them outside escort them out if it gets to a point we need to cite them or arrest them we will deal with it if it comes to that point. Can they be arrested for simply having marijuana . Or using marijuana . Or do they have to be belligerent before you arrest them . Simple possession of marijuana is just an infraction, so its not arrest able, its citable. Alright very good. Have you ever had a classmate talk about sneaking things in . And itll be a lot more fun if we do this or bring that . There are some students that say yeah they do it and get away with it and they have no problem have you ever heard of that . Student to bringing things in to have a better experience . Yeah, to enhance experience. Now tell me about that people will sneak anything in but its mostly not alcohol its mostly drugs ecstasy, molly or marijuana. And they go there for the love of the music but then drugs are really a big factor now a days in raves and festivals. Yeah,. And you know youre scaring moms and dads out [laughter] now theyre going to say, why should i let them go . Erika why did you want to go . I went because, i actually went with aiko, and she has been telling me for like the longest time that i need to go to a rave that its like one of the best experiences ever. And, i went and it was nothing that i had experienced. And like, there were drugs present but for the most part people had had their. Like they were under control like they were experienced, they were responsible about it. And there werent any. There wasnt as many people, that were just like out of control that like needed medical attention. You know, it does beg the question tony where is the line between people having fun and being safe . What they can do and what they cant do . Huh who judges . How do you judge . How do you decide . When it gets to a point where they cant care for themselves. Someone needs to take care of them. And granted people do go to these raves and theyre completely sober the whole time and they have a great time. But there is a handful of people that want to experiment and have a different feel. And when it gets to a point where they ingest drugs or alcohol and they cant care for themselves to the point where where theyre completely passed out. We need to step in and take care of them and thats where emts come into play thats where paramedics come into play and thats at points when they need to get transported to a hospital is there a difference. That you guys see with the frequency of marijuana users versus ecstasy and molly use . Or alcohol even . From my experience more at raves its molly and ecstasy is the main drug that they people use at raves. Versus alcohol . You would think alcohol is the most prevalent. Alcohol is sold at the event center at these raves. A lot of people do drink before coming here as well. And its a combination of both, its a combination of the drug use and the alcohol use that causes these medical issues is selling alcohol at the event center an issue that, maybe, should be addressed . Or maybe not sell alcohol at the event center . Is that an option that we have . We can consider that but a lot of people attending the event are over 21 years old. So what we take in consideration of the length of what that we call an edm shows, and not raves necessarily. And then at a particular point at time, like an hour and a half to two hours before ending we shut off alcohol. So it allows, whether it be a student, any participant, to kind of you know to if theyve been drinking to kind of sober up a little bit before we actually allow them to go out. So we take that into consideration weve talked about okay do we even cut it off earlier . You know, were always looking at ways to improve the environment, so that whether it be for our students and honestly the majority of our edm shows now i would say its anywhere from 50 to 60 to 70 percent of our students. We know that by our box office sales. Thats very good and i will say that over the years, this is the most student participation weve ever had at a concert in the event center. One of the most important thing is to pace yourself, because oding is the problem. People go there for the environment and the music but, drugs are going to be present. Its a Music Festival with a lot of people. It happens. Hydrate, of course. Make sure you know what youre taking. There. Now a days, since its such a big thing to do, theres test takers. So those exist so you can check what youre doing now you said a person can actually test what theyre drinking . Yeah, not what theyre drinking but what is like what is the content of their drug or their substance. Interesting. Yeah. How do students learn about that . How do they find out about that . The Testing Process . The Testing Process . What you were talking about . Yeah just google. Yeah [laughter] absolutely go ahead erika you were going to say . I think, as far as Safety Measures through the event center i think its really well managed. That theres. Like when i went to the last edm show, there were ambulances parked out front, there was a lot of security kind of monitoring the area. I think like the precautions are need to be taken by the individuals making sure that they are in control whether theyre sober or drinking alcohol, taking drugs. I think that its mostly up to that person. And when the effort is done and the lights go up and its time for people to go out, what about crowd control after these events . And people tend to look for after parties, they tend to want to continue the fun. What are the concerns afterwards when youre letting them out . We know that when a lot of people leave, theyre going to be inebriated. Theyre going to be on drugs so we try to have someone safe with them, friends sober friends that can take care of them and there are big crowds once they all leave the event center. Theres going to be thousands of people and we try to push them out to get home safely. Whether its back to the dorms, or to their car, or to uber, or to a cab. So we. Theres a lot of crowd control management at these edms and the end of these raves as well. So in terms of numbers, general numbers, how many would you say are in these events per evening . Well if we do have a sold out show youre looking at 6,300 to 6,500. Wow thats a huge crowd all of them, they dont stay the whole time period. So you lose some over time . Yeah so, you know, a particular show can start maybe at 6 oclock at night and it can go to 11 and they kind of come in, you know, well have a long line cause we do a thorough check before they enter the door. We do a, you know, we have a pat down, a Security Check before they come through. We check their bags, the person you know, try to check as much as we can to try to make sure theyre not bringing anything in. So yeah, it does take a little bit of time and so they kind of straggle in and out. Very good. Are there, more on the drug use there is during the searches we have amnesty boxes for them to. If they decide to choose, like this is probably not for me. They can drop it in there and it will be destroyed. So they do. They are given a chance to give up any drugs that they have in their possession before entering these edms are there any shows at the event center refuses to host or any artist specifically that may not be welcomed . Yeah we actually take some time in looking at the artists we actually bring to the event center. We try to bring more mainstream edm shows versus, what is considered underground shows and a lot of those will either be at beaches or a warehouse. We dont go there and the other we do when we bring in edm shows we usually use two major promoters that are nationally known and its usually aeg or live nation. And so those are promoters who know, and we work hand and hand with them. And its really a partnership that we have with University Police, the event center, and the promoter and then how we plan for the event and as i said weve gotten better and better over time. And i think you know probably our last show was what i consider our most successful show. And we will continue to do that and really monitor one of the things were thinking about doing is creating a video that students could actually view, that talks about safety and mixing of alcohol. What the dos and donts before they even get to the event. Talks about you know consent. So we going to touch upon a variety of issues and then may even have students have to view before they buy a ticket sounds like a great idea. Is that something that would interest you . Like students . Yeah, i think that would be a fantastic idea because its almost inevitable for it to happen, for drugs to be present. So the best thing to do is get prepared to get knowledge on it beforehand and its a fantastic idea and who are your favorite groups . Youre the expert now, tell me who are your favorite ones to go see . The djs . Mhmm. Tiesto and calvin harris, and those are pretty big names really . Yeah. They make the circuit here a lot . You see them a lot . Not in san,. Well in san jose san jose, the last, this last one we saw deorro. Deorro was great. Amazing it was a lot of fun. And then. And i know what promotions theyre telling me about. Guarantee you though, you want to know word of mouth, whether or not you want to go to these things. And when they do come tony, you want them have a good time but not to be worried about people coming in that are unsavory or issues like that. You want them have the experience that carol is trying to establish for them. Absolutely, we understand everyone is in college they want to experience college life and this is part of college life, is experiencing electric dance music. But the decision to experiment drugs, we understand is out there as well. And we try to prepare for that, like i said earlier we have medical staff at these edms in case it gets to that point. Very good and its cathy not carol. Yeah thank you i feel like we left out we missed this part of our time when we were in school. Enjoy yourselves, have fun. You need to have a good time, but make sure you keep us informed on how to have fun [laughter] thank you all for being here today. This was very enlightening. We appreciate it, and thank you for joining us. We hope youll come back for another edition of equal time. [music] [music] man funding for this program is provided by subaru. Woman at subaru, we build vehicles like the rugged outback, with symmetrical allwheel drive and plenty of cargo space. For those who pack even more adventure into life. Subaru, a proud sponsor of globe trekker. Ian wright this here, was a city of glorious palaces and the jewel in the british crown. One of the most overcrowded capitals in the world