Music Festivals Not Just About The Music

In just under two weeks, the Outside Lands music festival will make its yearly appearance in the city of San Francisco where over the course of three days, thousands of music lovers spanning a variety of ages will flock to the city in order to see over 80 bands play throughout the city’s iconic Golden Gate Park.

While music festivals such as Outside Lands have been around for many years, and are billed as a fun memorable experience that combines music with food, merchandise, performance art, and social activities; they also hide a dark truth—alcohol and drug abuse, which can then lead to fatal overdose and/or drug addiction.

Since the inception of music festivals in the sixties, drug and alcohol abuse has been omnipresent; and despite such prevalence, many individuals are still unaware of the extremely harmful consequences that can occur from abusing alcohol or drugs, especially in the high temperatures of summer. Just last June, after attending the 2-day Paradiso Music Festival in Washington, more than 40 individuals were hospitalized for drug and alcohol related injuries and one young man sadly died after an alleged overdose of a drug called Molly.

After about 20 minutes, things started to go wrong. My vision started to blur, I became disoriented, and my friends knew I was in trouble.”

– Janice, after experimenting with Molly

Molly is the name given to the powder or crystal form of the drug MDMA, the chemical used in Ecstasy, and has long been a popular drug at music festivals; with its popularity seeming to only increase with time. While Ecstasy has the potential to be laced with any other substance such as caffeine or methamphetamine, molly is often thought of as the “pure” form of MDMA. Yet this leads to many individuals seeing the word “pure” and therefore thinking that it is a safe way to get high.

However, the exact opposite is true. There is really no definitive way to know that Molly is 100 percent “pure.” Molly is a drug that can cause dangerous and harmful consequences, such as:

• Elevated heart rate
• Distortion of thought processes which in turn cause the users to not realize their rising body temperature or fading stamina as they continue to party
• Dehydration and exhaustion
• Hyperthermia
• Seizures
• Electrolyte abnormalities
• Cardiac episodes
• Comas

Aside from the immediate effects, repeated abuse of Molly or MDMA can leave users with serious long-term consequences, including depletion of the brain’s neurotransmitters, which decreases a person’s ability to feel pleasure. The ultimate consequence is that as little as one use of a drug like Molly – or any other addictive drug – can spark the dangerous spiral of addiction.

Before you know it, one use becomes two and every concert, music festival or social event will have to be accompanied by drug abuse—you are no longer abusing drugs because you want to, you are using because you need to because your body is now dependent to the harmful substances.

The bottom line is abusing any drug at a music festival or anywhere can have lifelong consequences, including death. Do not let one decision ruin your summer, or your life. If you feel as though you or a loved one have fallen victim to peer pressure, or what is thought to be societally acceptable at a music festival or social event and have slipped towards addiction, please don’t hesitate to call our trained addiction specialists 855-678-8337.

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