Australia’s rave and festival scene has hit a crucial tipping point. How we handle this situation, how our government handles us and how our promoters subsequently deal with the results of all that could very well dictate the future of our culture and music. I’m speaking, of course, of drugs and Australia’s drug culture. More specifically, I’m talking about the way drug related injury and death has catapulted Australia’s festival and rave scene into a perfect storm, with punters and drug reform supporters on one side, police, media and government on the other.

Over the course of 2015, 6 people died as a result of illicit drugs consumed at music festivals. Many more were admitted to hospital as a result of illness and injury caused by non-fatal overdoses. At the Brisbane edition of popular festival Stereosonic alone, paramedics admitted 20 people to the emergency ward because of overdoses. Hundreds more avoided injury or death, but were issued fines and criminal charges as a result of being caught in possession of drugs. It wasn’t long before New South Wales police were publicly pointing the finger at dance music as a whole, claiming there was a definite link between EDM and drugs.

As outraged and offended as many people were over the statement, it’s impact was unavoidable. Before long the NSW police minister addressed the media, telling them that the government would shut festivals down if they deemed it necessary, blaming the festival organisers and claiming they needed to improve their safety standards. The fact that promoters of any large scale event always complied with drug dog operations and bag searches of punters upon entry to the event seemed to be largely ignored, blame and culpability was laid firmly at the feet of event organisers.

By large, Sydney’s rave scene seemed to continue as per usual for awhile, but the issues are starting to pile up. There have been two fatal overdoses at Defqon.1 over recent years, a fatal overdose at trance event ASOT, multiple deaths at Stereosonic and multiple parties across all EDM/rave genres have been shut down early. The Sydney trance scene had a running joke for awhile about the number of parties being shut down early (‘inb4 someone OD’s and headliner can’t finish their set’ etc). Every time the police would issue the same statements revolving around the evils of drugs and the irresponsibility of our youth, whilst the punters largely ignored the situation and did what they’d always done.

Now, with the announcement that this year’s edition of Defqon.1 will be only one day (no camping), Sydney’s rave scene is being forced to confront its demons. Whilst the festival organiser Q-Dance has not publicly confirmed that recent overdoses are the reason, the general consensus is that this is the case. It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together, especially considering last year’s overdose happened in the camping area. Given that if someone overdosed in camping on Friday night, the entire festival would be cancelled Saturday and the police would have all the ammunition they need to prevent future editions of Defqon from proceeding, it only makes sense for Q-Dance to make the difficult call to put camping on hold. It’s gotten to the point where there’s too much risk, as depressing as that is to admit.

As obvious as all this is, the announcement has nonetheless thrown the rave scene into fierce debate. Many people found camping to have made their defqon experience, and are understandably upset. It’s brought the ongoing debate around drugs to centre-stage within the scene, and the usual arguments of prohibition vs harm minimisation are being made.

Personally, I strongly believe that prohibition has proven near useless here in Australia, and given that the current approach isn’t acting as a deterrent, we need to try something new in order to save lives. That’s easier said than done though when you have the likes of police commissioner Andrew Scipione publicly declaring that harm minimisation techniques will not be used by NSW police, and they have no intention of doing anything but continuing their current hard line approach towards all recreational drugs.

Never mind that harm minimisation tactics have been found time and time again to work, never mind that the current approach just isn’t improving the current dangerous situation, it’s business as per usual as far as our police and government are concerned.

However, one thing Scipione did say to the media has resonated with me: “Culture’s not something you can enforce with the law, it has to come from those that are involved.”

It’s so true, the issue here is our drug culture. It’s all well and good to moan about how us ravers are being hard done by, that our parties are being taken away  and that it’s the government’s fault for not allowing pill testing or harm minimisation, but the fact of the matter is that this change needs to start with us. What good will all the harm minimisation in the world do if we refuse to change our drug culture on both an individual and social level? The fact of the matter is that there is a link between drugs and the rave scene, and whilst there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, there is a problem at the moment with the way we’re consuming these drugs. We’re refusing to take personal responsibility, and that’s the hard truth of it. Look at the death of the 19 year old male at ASOT: the victim and his friends were reportedly engaging in a game of who could consume the most pills. If that’s not a complete failure to take personal responsibility, than I don’t know what is.

We can claim the hard dance scene isn’t like that, that we’re somehow better drug users, that we’re more responsible, but after two overdoses at Defqon and other large parties being forced to shut early, we’d be lying through our teeth. Guys, we have a problem and it’s time to admit it. Look at what’s happening, the police are doing their best to shut us down to the point where even Defqon.1, our biggest event, is at risk. How long do we continue going the way we are before we kill our scene? It’s not ‘casuals’, not lads and not raw vs euphoric that’s going to kill our beloved culture, it’s us.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s completely our fault. Our current drug market is awash with research chemicals and other drugs that manufacturers and dealers are passing off to their customers as the ‘real thing’, as these substances are cheaper to produce and often require smaller doses. Take MDMA for example: it’s probably the most widely sought after and consumed party drug in the rave scene. Whilst you can certainly overdose on legitimate MDMA, it also very possible to recreationally consume it in a safe manner, provided you know your limits. The issue is though a lot of what is getting marketed as ‘ecstasy’ or ‘MDMA’, is in fact adulterated substances laced with chemicals such as PMA and Piperazine, both of which are notorious for producing adverse effects in far smaller doses.

In these instances, an individual who is usually quite responsible with their drug use can find themselves in trouble when their pills produce a very different effect to what they’re used to. Someone who has safely consumed real MDMA for a long time may all of a sudden be at severe risk of overdosing, because they’ve exceeded what would constitute a safe dose for a substance they don’t even realise they’re consuming. Because of this problem, I really do support harm minimisation tactics such as pill testing as it could literally save lives. In places like Europe, these tactics are already being used to great effect. Even just communicating to a festival at large when a ‘bad batch’ is detected would surely help.

The issue here in Australia though is that our own behaviour is our own worst enemy, and I personally fear that this behaviour could kill the scene and ruin the fun for all of us. It’s already well known that the police and our government don’t like rave culture and have no hesitation in shutting us down, locking us out of our venues and threatening promoters who try to continue their businesses despite opposition. Is it not obvious that our current drug culture is providing the alliance of police, government and media all the ammunition they need to stomp down on us? If we want to be able to camp at Defqon, if we want our parties to go their advertised finish time, if we want our fellow ravers to stop literally dropping dead at parties, we need to change.

The rave and festival scene was literally why I moved to Sydney, where I made all my friends and where I’ve made some of the best memories of life. Now, I fear it’s all at risk of being ripped away from us because too many people are failing to take personal responsibility and because our government refuses to admit their war on drugs has failed. Harm minimisation is desperately needed, but a change in our behaviour is even more necessary for our scene to survive.

It’s not hard guys, I promise you. Buy a testing kit online and use it, don’t take drugs from people you don’t know, don’t push your limits and always look out for your fellow ravers. If you can’t or don’t want to do these things, then just don’t take drugs at all. All of us have had enough of people dying and having irresponsible behaviour ruin it for the rest of us. I’m tired of hearing people brag about drug taking behaviour that’s so irresponsible, it literally makes me want to tell them they are the reason our scene is at risk. We’re at a tipping point here, don’t be the momentum that pushes us in the wrong direction. The writing is there on the wall for all to see, read it and make smart decisions.