I am part of a community involved in an ubran underground rave scene. These raves are always secret illegal gatherings run by collectives and sound system networks. I’ve been going to these parties for years, but last night witnessed a failure in our organization that nearly cost two people their lives. We’ve been forchunate that responsible drug and alcohol use have been the norm but last night we had two ODs in an abandonded warehouse (think B&E) party. Because the parties are so loosely organized (anyone who can help does, with marketing, sound equipment, cop-lookouts, map guides etc) there was no one person appointed to make decisions when people started dropping like flies (it now appears the two ODs were probably unrelated unforchunate coincidences). The first OD was a semi-conscious (but barely able to communicate) young man who had no muscle control but was obvious in distress. Because he was not out-cold it was generally felt that there was no imminent threat to their life and so calling 911 was not necessary (b/c it would result in cops coming with the paramedics and there by killing the party for the 200 ppl involved as well as possible tresspassing charges). Announcements were eventually made over the PA that bad drugs could be floating around, also attempts were made to find friends of the OD victim but to no avail. Prospective drivers were located so that if the situation worsened the victim could be driven to a hospital or at least somewhere where paramedics could be beckoned without giving away the party location. Eventually the 1st person was in fact driven off (though due to the low-key nature of the party we did not allow cars to park near the location, rather the nearest car was a 15-20 minute walk). We were damn lucky, eventually a friend was tracked down and the victim was taken to that person’s house (to the best of my knowledge they recovered at the house hours later). The 2nd OD had similar symptoms at first but came out of it after 45 min and was ok.
So my GQ is what system can we institute to better care for OD victims on a shoe-string budget (non-profit parties btw)? Private ambulences are not feasible due to cost. Some ppl at the party had limmited training or expertise but certainly no where near that of a paramedic. How can we keep people safe without getting arrested?