Advertisement

Hooper: Sunset Music Festival reminds young and old alike about the dangers of drugs

 
Published June 11, 2016

When your college-aged sons attend a concert where two people die and 57 are hospitalized, you immediately grow concerned.

Ask Cindy Grant about concerts such as the Memorial Day weekend Sunset Music Festival — where the good times got tainted by two deaths and 89 calls for distress — and your worries multiply. The cause of those deaths is still under investigation, but Tampa police believe drugs played a role in the medical problems.

Grant, director of the Hillsborough County Anti Drug Alliance, says that such EDM (electronic dance music) festivals serve as the 21st century version of raves: concerts where a culture of drinking and drugs envelops the crowd. Mix in the Florida heat and humidity and it's no surprise Grant and others are crying Mayday.

After all, her son Dan died from an overdose of OxyContin in 1997, turning her from unaware parent to fully engaged advocate.

"It's not like I don't want kids to have fun," said Grant, 56. "I was a kid once. We went to the club, danced to disco music, always drank water and got home safe.

"When my son told me he was going to a concert, I thought it was like what I used to do. But it's not."

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said he may bid adieu to the Sunset Music Festival.

"This is not the type of event that Tampa wants to be known for," Buckhorn told the Tampa Bay Times last week.

Grant is not ready to back the mayor on forcing the concert out of town. Not yet, anyway.

"We have to take a look at this and find a way to make them safer," Grant said. "If we can't, then I'm 100 percent with the mayor."

She wants to meet with concert promoters and local stakeholders like the Tampa Sports Authority and talk about policy changes that could improve safety. She wants to hold promoters more accountable, convinced that they know of the drug environment and are simply looking the other way.

And she wants to explore the possibility of somehow preventing kids from bringing drugs into the concerts.

"No drugs allowed, no turning the other cheek, no looking the other way," Grant said.

I laid all of this at the feet of my son — who doesn't do drugs — and he makes a compelling counterargument, noting that if the concert leaves Tampa, it will end up in another city and the problems will go unresolved.

It's possible, he says, such a festival could end up on a rural farm, farther away from the hospitals and help that EDM concertgoers may end up needing.

He argued the needs for greater education about drug use: an awareness campaign that underscores the dangers of MDMA, or Molly, as the drug is commonly known. Clearly, young people either aren't hearing warnings that Molly can be tainted or cut with harmful chemicals or they aren't listening to the message that it can cause permanent, damaging health effects.

Or death.

The reality is that you're more apt to hear about Molly in a pop song than in a public service announcement, and that's a plea for an awareness campaign.

Spend your days with Hayes

Subscribe to our free Stephinitely newsletter

Columnist Stephanie Hayes will share thoughts, feelings and funny business with you every Monday.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

Some have noted recent Gasparilla Pirate Invasions have grown safer, but that's a direct result of campaigns by the Tampa police to spread the word at the parade about drug and alcohol abuse and its consequences.

One recent high school graduate told me she couldn't recall attending a drug prevention assembly at her high school, but she does remember warnings about Gasparilla behavior.

Grant said that funding cuts took the "Too Good for Drugs" campaign out of high schools and relegated them to middle school. To help counter that loss, her coalition created educational tool kits for school resource officers called "Safe, Smart & Successful in High School."

It's good to start with drug education at the youngest age possible and continue to re-inforce it, but Grant noted that most of these concerts draw an older crowd ranging from 18 to 36.

So we have to focus on helping everyone realize the dangers. We can relegate the concerts to far-flung locations, we can try to minimize the amount of drugs available, but the best approach is getting concertgoers to make good decisions.

Hint: Bath salts are for bathing, not ingestion.

Like Grant, I started partying during the last days of disco and it included its own culture of drug use. Luckily, I opted to get caught up in Chic's Good Times without the aid of illegal substances.

Ultimately, we need today's generation to make the same decision. We need them to choose music over Molly and songs over synthetic drugs.

Good times shouldn't lead to a hospital.

Or a morgue.

That's all I'm saying.