Death On The Dance Floor: It Could Happen To You

Due to recent tragic events, the elephant in the room regarding drugs and EDM needs to be put to rest. Following the recent tragedies that occured last Wednesday at Zedd’s show and this past weekend at Electric Zoo, the topic of drugs in the EDM scene needs to be brought to light. I know this is a very touchy subject for a lot of people, as it should be. Drug overdose is a very real thing. Over the past years we have been seeing and hearing more and more of it.

We here at Your EDM are NOT advocates for drug use at music festivals and shows, but if you choose to take drugs recreationally, please be careful, your life is not a toy, and it should not be played with. This is why I want to share with you, our readers, my personal story.

I used to be an advocate for taking ‘molly’ at shows as well as other hard drugs, and I did it myself quite frequently. I started listening to EDM and attending shows at a young age, but it wasn’t until I was 17 that I was introduced to ‘molly’. After my first “roll,” I knew I was hooked, I felt that without ‘molly’ shows and festivals would never live up to that first experience. I didn’t fully understand the dangers of it. Seeing as I was the most experienced drug user among friends, I was always the one to tell them to drink water, “don’t push yourself.” (I, meanwhile would ignore my own advice and continue to push my limits. That is, until Lollapalooza 2012)

On the first day of Lolla, I started the festival at a normal pace, by taking the regular dose I would usually take, then I took more, and more, and this time, it was my friends telling me to slow down. But I didn’t listen. I thought to myself, “What do they know? I’ve been doing this for years, I know what I’m doing.” Late in the afternoon of the first day, I collapsed. My friends had no idea what happened, and neither did I. they were all too scared of getting in trouble to call anyone over for help. So, they leaned me up against a tree, and friends poured water on me trying to wake me up.

Thank god I did wake up. When I came to, I was completely terrified, I thought I had died. The feeling of losing control of my body, of my breathing and of control itself was horrifying and shocking. But the shock of what happened still wasn’t enough to keep me from going hard. the next two days. I kept drinking and taking drugs, and after three days, when I finally got home, I collapsed again, and was taken to the hospital. My friends just thought I was sleeping the weekend off. They had no idea that I was in the hospital having suffered organ damage, and minor brain damage.

I lay in my hospital bed for two days not knowing whether or not I would live or die. I was completely hopeless. Even after the doctors informed me that I was going to be okay, I was at a loss, I couldn’t come to terms with what had happened. The feeling of overdosing is something one can’t even begin to explain. The closest I can come to putting it in words is that a darkness comes over you; you feel as if you are drifting away.

Following that incident, I have been completely sober, I realize the dangers drugs and alcohol. There are many people who think that EDM and drugs go hand in hand, but I’m here to tell you that is not the case. It is possible to avoid drugs and still have an unbelievable time. When you are at a festival or a show, you have the choice to NOT take anything, no matter what someone tells you. Drug overdose is a very real issue, it does not matter how much experience you have with a certain drug. An overdose can happen to anyone, and nobody is invincible to the dangers of drugs.

There is nothing wrong with asking someone for help if you feel like you have a problem, nor does it make you a loser or a party killer if you choose not to drink or use drugs. It makes you an individual that cares about their life. There is a reason drugs affect our bodies the way they do.They are not meant to be there. That’s why the feeling of being ‘high’ is there; The ‘high’ is your body’s way of warning itself: this does not belong there.

I know that this article probably won’t do much, but if just one person out of our many readers reads this article and gets something out of it, then I will be happy. Every time I hear that someone has overdosed and died, I cry. I cry because deep down I know, that could have been me.