DJ Kaskade on substance abuse: “Let's not pretend this is unique to dance music"
Yesterday, an article was published in the LA Times about the cancellation of a popular Halloween rave party, Hard Day of the Dead, “after a summer of deaths,” referring to the deaths of three young adults attending the Hard Summer music festival in San Bernardino County.
DJ Kaskade has fired back, though, believing that stereotyping drug use as a dance music problem is a simplification of the substance abuse problem as a whole.
“I'm happy to tackle substance abuse. I'm happy to use my influence to encourage people to be responsible, to stay alive,” he wrote on his website. “But this is a worldwide problem, something that is not even close to being unique to dance music. Part of the problem is people trying to simple-size it. Raves = drugs. So close them down.”
Read more: Here’s the anti-Molly video EDM festival attendees are required to watch
In the article, the LA Times reports that there have been “at least 25 confirmed drug-related deaths nationwide since 2006,” and though Kaskade says this is a tragic number, he sees this as a way of inciting fear instead of change. For, he says, substance abuse is a bigger problem than simply what's taking place at music festivals.
“According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, every day in America 27 (TWENTY-SEVEN!) people die as a result of drunk driving crashes.
That's more than one person, per hour, every single day.
So, in the past 10 years there have been 21 substance-related deaths at dance events. And EVERY DAY there are 27 substance-related deaths, which are somehow less news and attention worthy. I suppose once you reach a certain point, the news doesn't notice anymore.”
He continues his statement by encouriging “education, harm reduction and legalization” to help change the dialogue around drug abuse.
Read the statement in full here.
