The US Government has spent billions fighting the war on drugs and it hasn’t changed anything. It’s a war that can’t be won. And as Diplo said to RollingStone, “persecuting a festival is not going to help because kids are going to do them regardless.”
Festivals or venues can be sued for improper facilities or by not creating a safe environment, but are they responsible for the decisions the attendees make? No.
Diplo also goes on to call out the media, specifically mentioning “this the first time music writers can have something to write about.” In a lot of ways this is true, but drug deaths involving electronic music make the perfect story for any type of online publication. It’s easy to design the narrative positioning music and festivals as the bad thing, create fear and spread the message virally through social media. News outlets and blogs including this one are compensated based on the number of pageviews and visitors we get.
The truth is that the stigma surrounding drugs should be removed. For some reason it’s okay to purchase or use drugs for some people, but buying a testing kit to see if there are any additional unsafe chemicals is too far. Shouldn’t this be common sense instead of outlawed?
Diplo ends his statement politically saying, “Drugs are a big problem in America, because we have money to spend and a culture that wants to be turnt up all the time.”
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