420 Festival Brings Ecstasy and Controversy to Orange County on Saturday April 23rd

You will also get great concern from the community about a festival that is not afraid to admit its contribution to the drug culture.

On Saturday April 23, Motive Events will be hosting this years 420 festival. The gathering of 10,000 plus people will be at Orange County’s Oak Canyon Park in Silverado, CA. This 12 hour fiasco will have three stages of music, carnival rides, alcohol, and allegedly, plenty of drugs.

This festival or "rave party" will usually have fast paced electronic music and a light show. These rave parties have received plenty of attention from law enforcement after the media gave raves the reputation that “raves are drug-fueled parties where ecstasy use was highly encouraged.”

In 1999 one of the biggest out door events turned into tragedy when 5 teenagers died when their car went off a cliff after leaving a Juju Beats rave in Snowcrest.

In 2010 Insomniac’s Electric Daisy Carnival was a two day event in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Reports say that 100 people where hospitalized and 15 year old Sasha Rodriquez died of complications brought on by an ecstasy overdose, (the autopsy stated cause of death was hyponatremia).

One of the reasons people get hyponatremia is excess water accumulates in the body at a higher rate than can be excreted. When using ecstasy it is common to keep your self hydrated and advised to drink a lot of water, because of the dry mouth.

It is common knowledge that the usual drugs at raves are ecstasy, LSD, methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and ketamine. This common knowledge brings concern to substance abuse facilities.

Representatives from Narconon just recently said, “Starting about four years ago, 420 has taken on a different meaning as enterprising music promotion companies began parlaying modest 420 gatherings lasting a few minutes into massive Rave music festivals lasting from dusk to dawn, attended by 10,000 plus ravers.”  The party culture refers to statements like this as coming from "Debbie Downers" a Saturday Night Live skit that parodies those that find the downside of everything.

Advocates for safety are concerned about the growth of the festival, but has more concern about the drug abuse. “Another change, the drug involved was no longer cannabis; it was ecstasy - far more lucrative, far more tenacious and far, far more devastating in its effects” one representative said. 

Narconon is a residential program aimed at substance abusers in Los Angeles California and some locations world wide. Drug Prevention Specialist for Narconon Bobby Wiggins expressed his concern, “The problem ecstasy presents is unpredictable overdose on a drug that is used by dealers to lure the unwary into addiction to even harder substances.”

When people are overdosing on ecstasy they go through many different symptoms:  involuntary and intense muscle twitching and involuntary eye movements, they start having over responsive or over reactive reflexes, rapid breathing and shortness of breath, abnormal beating of the heart, severe chest pain, circulatory shock, destruction of blood vessels, stroke, and hyperthermia.

All of these symptoms with out treatment can lead to: syncope, fainting, loss of consciousness, organ failure, brain damage, coma, and death. Reviews from the published literature on memory from Meta-analytic, show that ecstasy users suffer significant short-term and long-term verbal memory impairment. With 70–80% of ecstasy users displaying significantly impaired memory.

A glance at the lineup shows this reporter that the focus of the festival is going to be on rave oriented electronica and not traditional "420" stoner music:

LMFAO
TOCADISCO
MICHAEL WOODS
JUNIOR SANCHEZ B2B

DJ REZA
WILL BAILEY
NOM DE STRIP
PAUL AHI
CULT CLASSIQUE
MR WHITE
TONIC
AUDIOBOT
BULIMIATRON
FREQ MODS
ALY & FILA
RANK 1
W&W
ISAAC
NORIN & RAD
SWEDISH EGIL
MR. BROOKS
SHOWTEK
ADAM F
ZEDS DEAD
BLACK SUN EMPIRE
ARKIST
PABLO HASSAN
ANTISERUM
KING VS 80DUB
DRULEY
ATOMiC Projekt

- Cesar V