Harm Reduction
Harm Reduction Resources Are Coming to All Insomniac Music Festivals
The nation’s preeminent electronic music festival organizer, Insomniac Events, has announced a partnership with End Overdose, an organization spreading awareness of the opioid crisis. End Overdose will now have a presence at all Insomniac festivals, according to the company’s CEO, Pasquale Rotella. The nonprofit will provide educational resources and safety supplies, including Narcan kits, to combat onsite opioid overdose. The kits can quickly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose by administering Naloxone, a synthetic drug that blocks opiate receptors in the nervous system. “Accidental deaths from opioids and fentanyl are happening in our schools, in our homes, at festivals & in our communities,” reads a statement issued by Rotella. “This is an issue ...
Free Narcan Kits to Be Distributed to New York Nightlife Establishments, Per New Legislation
It’s no secret that the opioid epidemic is worsening across the country. In New York City, where one resident dies of an overdose every three hours, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has teamed up with the Mayor’s Office of Nightlife for groundbreaking new legislation: distributing free anti-overdose kits to nightlife establishments across the state’s five boroughs. The hope, legislators said in a press release, is to combat accidental overdoses caused by pills or powders laced with fentanyl, a substance the United States Drug Administration found fatal doses of in 42% of pills they tested in 2021. Narcan, an anti-overdose agent that rapidly reverses the effects of an overdose, will be in each kit they provide to community nightlife hubs. “The frank real...
Free Narcan Kits to Be Distributed to New York Nightlife Establishments, Per New Legislation
It’s no secret that the opioid epidemic is worsening across the country. In New York City, where one resident dies of an overdose every three hours, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has teamed up with the Mayor’s Office of Nightlife for groundbreaking new legislation: distributing free anti-overdose kits to nightlife establishments across the state’s five boroughs. The hope, legislators said in a press release, is to combat accidental overdoses caused by pills or powders laced with fentanyl, a substance the United States Drug Administration found fatal doses of in 42% of pills they tested in 2021. Narcan, an anti-overdose agent that rapidly reverses the effects of an overdose, will be in each kit they provide to community nightlife hubs. “The frank real...
“We Are the Dork Side That Prevent People From Going to the Dark Side”: How Shambhala Is Pioneering Harm Reduction at Music Festivals
Between 1964 and 1975, an estimated 40,000 Americans crossed the border illegally into Canada, mostly to dodge the threat of being drafted to the military and the fear of combat in the Vietnam war. Some came due to the threat of imprisonment as President Nixon declared the “war on drugs” and addressed drug use as “public enemy #1.” A significant portion of these “draft dodgers” came to find a new home and Canadian diaspora in the Kootenay region of British Columbia and the central hub in the town of Nelson, per BC: An Untold History. The historic past and culture of challenging the definition of war and reducing harm is still very much alive in the Kootenay region. Shambhala Music Festival’s harm reduction culture and programs are a timely testament. EDM...
GRiZ Sets Sights On Safer Events By Launching Harm Reduction Program
GRiZ is launching a new harm reduction program, Harmony Project. The program was created in partnership with industry safety leaders DanceSafe and Good Night Out Vancouver. The mission of the Harmony Project, according to its founders, is to make electronic music events safer on all fronts. They’ve broken it down into three key pillars: care, community and consent. The first pillar asks everyone to check in with their friends and strangers to make sure everyone is taking care of themselves and those around them. This means drinking water, resting, and ensuring the venue is cared for as well. The second pillar encourages attendees to visit the Harmony Project booth and improve their harm reduction skills, including feeling comfortable asking for help. The final ca...
DanceSafe Upgrades Drug-Checking Instructions for Maximum Harm Reduction
Non-profit organization DanceSafe has officially released their updated drug-checking instructions. Although they have always been precise and user-friendly, these lifesaving guides are now as transparent as possible so anyone can understand and use them correctly. “After over a year, many 12-hour co-working days, blood, sweat, tears, discussions with global allies in drug checking, nit-picky editing, designing and redesigning and redesigning, we’ve completely upgraded ALL of our drug checking instructions,” DanceSafe announced in an Instagram post. “We’re really proud of them. Please take advantage of them.” Now shipping with every new order, the instructions are also available as PDFs on the DanceSafe store product pages. Operating under the principles...
Juul to pay US state $40 million for targeting teens with e-cigarettes
Electronic cigarette giant Juul Labs Inc will pay $40m to North Carolina and take more action to prevent underage use and sales, according to a landmark United States legal settlement announced on Monday after years of accusations that the company had fueled an explosion in teen vaping. A state judge accepted the first-of-its-kind agreement with a US state. North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein had sued Juul, accusing it of employing unfair and deceptive marketing practices that targeted young people to use its vaping products, which deliver addictive nicotine. As part of the agreement, Juul will not advertise to anyone under 21 in North Carolina and will limit sales amounts of Juul products online to any state residents. It will also sell its products only behind counters at retailer...
An Urgent Call for Harm Reduction in EDM: How to Keep You and the Rave Alive Post-Pandemic
“Nightlife always survives.” “It survived the great depression, and it survived the AIDs pandemic in the 80s,” Joseph J. Palamar, Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health at New York University Langone Medical Center, tells EDM.com. “Nightlife will always come back.” The terms of the world opening up after more than a year of isolation, loneliness, and tragedy are uncertain. But there’s something we know for sure: we love to dance with our friends. And for the first time in more than a year, that feels like a genuine—and imminent—possibility. As we write this piece, 39% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. It feels a bit easier every day to imagine that someday soon some of us will once again be sa...
