drugs GALORE

General Questions
#1

alright…so whats the deal with raves??? ive always had friends who go to raves, and this is what they tell me.
“Oh drugs everywhere mescaline, acid, shrooms, pot, all kinds of shi-stuff” people walk around inside the clubs that the raves are held in and literally advertise and compete for sales.
another thing ive been told about raves is that they are frequent, as much as once a week.
so…my point is…whats up with the cops?? dont they catch a wiff of whats goin on? or are the cops here just stupid??? not to offend any cops whom might be reading this.And if you are a cop then i wanna here from ya. i know you guys know whats goin on.
as for myself-i would like to attend a rave one day to see what really goes on.
that’ll probably be the day they rush the place huh?

Either let me fly or give me death
Let my soul rest-take my breath
if i dont fly ima die anyway
Ima live on but ill be gone anyday

DARK MAN X

#2

Wow… I wanna go, too. Think it’d be fun if I brought my Twister game?

#3

Hip. That scene was really bouncing about 8 years ago or so …
Where I live raves have become very much frowned upon by the authorities for just those reasons and are becoming scarce. Curfews, cops in parking lot, frequent searches at the drop of a hat, etc.

#4

Mars, the cops are there, they are having fun too!!!

#5
  • Raves started out as illegal parties in out-of-the-way locations, usually without the building owner’s permission. Vacant buildings would be used, and extension cords would be strung from an adjacent building that had power (and no, the adjacent building didn’t say it was okay to use the electricity) -you gotta have music and some type of lighting. Normally there are no bathrooms and no refreshments, except wherever you choose to go and what you brung with you.
    Nowadays in my town, there are occasional raves but they are legitimate - they advertise in the paper, they are held in a rented building of some sort intended for holding parties in and you have to pay to get in. As a matter of tradition, they try to keep the location stark, and stoned people tend to throw up on wool carpeting anyway. Hundreds of people show up. Whoever is throwing it has to meet fire and safety regulations. There are cops around, but they usually stay outside. There’s still drugs, but people who know tell me not like in days past.
  • “Illegal” raves are still done, but the crowds are rather small (100 maybe) due to the fact that to evade police, you have to be in the know to get invited. Also, it’s not quite like the renegade affairs of old; often the building owner (or somebody with access to the building) agrees to let it be used, but they don’t get the permits for selling drinks or occupancy permits. (St. Louis doesn’t really have the depressed infrastructure you need to hide a party in.) - MC
#6

MC said:

They could always travel across the river to E. St. Louis.

#7
      • I don’t have the tattoos to be partying in E. St. Louis at three in the morning. - MC
#8

I don’t think cops really care as much as they claim to. I posted before about a cop who told me to my face that it was not illegal to buy cigarettes for minors (and I don’t mean buying them for your own kids). There is a club here that has a room upstairs which is pretty much only used to do drugs (not pot, but heavy drugs like acid and heroin). Everybody knows about it, and nobody cares. There are probably lots more clubs like it, but it’s the only one I’ve actually been to. As for raves, somebody told me that a rave was a party where you sold tickets and gave away free beer (in order to circumvent laws requiring permits to sell beer). Is that not right?

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
– Henry David Thoreau

#9
      • pldennison, are you , by chance, in or near St. Louis? Or just familiar with E. St. Louis’ reputation? - MC
#10

MC, no, I’m in Cleveland; but I’m familiar with E. St. Louis because my family was stationed in Missori for 2 years when I was young, at Ft. Leonard Wood.

#11
      • Oh, pal, you aren’t familiar with it now. Some of my favorite stories:
  • One day a guy went to take out his trash, and his German Shepard followed him outside, and trotted off. A few moments later, the dog returned, with a human skull in its mouth. The guy tossed the skull “behind his garage” and didn’t tell anybody, because he didn’t want any trouble.
    Some kids found it and kicked it around (played soccer with it) for a month and a half. A few told their parents and teachers, but nobody believed them. Finally, a police officer spotted it on the street and recovered it but by that time the facial area was too destroyed to do any reconstruction at all. No headless body has been found. - The dog’s name was “Goofytroops”.
  • The head of the Dept. of Streets was caught running his own trash and tree hauling business. Using city trucks and city employees during regular hours.
  • After snowfall, the streets are supposed to be plowed and salted. The city workers commonly did the mayor’s street first. Sometimes that was all they would do. Many of the streets couldn’t be plowed well because there were too many potholes (see below).
  • At one point the city college (State Community College) was turning away students for classes, because the budget didn’t have money for teachers, but all the janitors were kept on staff and fully employed. The janitors were all related to college board members.
  • A past mayor hired several bodyguards and equipped them generously (at city expense) even though the city was bankrupt at the time. Only a few police cars were usable, and some of the cars that could be driven didn’t have working radios - the officers had to use pay phones. There was one fire truck that was usable, but the on-board water system was broken, which meant fire hydrants had to always be used. During the summer, hydrants are often opened and left on for kids to play in.
  • At one point county police took over patrolling E. St. Louis, because the mayor suggested officers use their own cars and they refused.
  • CASINO!!! - E. St. Louis got a casio. - American Bottoms is the company that runs sewage and trash removal for the city. Collection efforts for non-payment were too difficult, so many residents simply stopped paying their bills. Even some city board members and elected officials were found to be 12-18 months in arrears. Eventually Amer. Bottoms threatened the city with cutting off services. There was a sum of money from profits of the casino, and an election was held: use the money to pay for street and bridge services (which hadn’t been done in several years) or pay the back trash and sewer bills. The second choice won.
  • The Fountain: Whoever was in charge at the time decided a memorial fountain in a lake near the city offices would be nice. They didn’t want any old fountain though, they wanted a BIG fountain. And so they got one, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars. It sprays straight up, 600 feet high - roughly as high as the Gateway Arch. It’s too expensive to run all the time, so they only turn it on from 12:00PM to 12:05 PM, weekdays. The rest of the time it is turned off.
      • The St. Louis paper didn’t carry many of the stories about E. St. Louis. The Belleville paper did, but they don’t have on-line archives. I meant to write a book someday, including all the news stories that ran - altogether it’s truly an amazing amount of crime, corruption and general boneheadedness committed by a constantly changing parade of characters. - MC
#12

Hey Mars,

First off - go to a rave, they’re great and you don’t have to be on drugs to enjoy them all you need is the energy to dance. I’ve been to raves around the world from about '89 to '95. I hardly go anymore as the scene has changed a lot where I live.

From my experience I think the police can’t do too much about the drug taking. A few years back when raves became popular and moved from being an underground scene to popular culture then they cracked down on the club owners to try and tackle the drug problem. All this meant was that we’d take whatever outside the club be searched at the door, walk in, start dancing, whatever. Another problem is how do you search everyone to find a tablet(s) the size of an aspirin?.

Any time the police have broken up a rave I’ve been to legal or otherwise causes them more problems then it solves. Throwing 500 people out to the street at 4am all at once when most of them are wired is not a good practise. From police I’ve talked to most of them are content with letting it go on as it’s all behind closed doors, everyone who’s in there knows the scene and it causes less problems.

One point I’d add is that compared to a nightclub where alcohol is the drug of choice raves are far more friendly.

#13

Actually a lot of the newer “raves” are called “parties” by the participants, drugs are not really a large part of the scene (at least not here in the northwest) and it’s more of a music, smart drink kind of thing.

To deal with men by force is as impractical as to deal with nature by persuasion.

#14

Raves are sponsored by Budweiser nowadays, advertised in trendy mall shops. What a joke. Pack your bags, folks, the movement’s over.

Your Quadell

#15

Quadell - that sounds awful.

The movement is changing but far from over. Check out what’s happening in Europe, the ‘Rave culture’ is still going strong.

From what you posted it looks like Budweiser latched onto a fad to promote their beer.

I’d reckon anyone who wants to go to the real thing will know where to go.

#16

If the real thing exists anymore, I’d love to find it! I live in Louisville, Ky, though, so…

Your Quadell