Drug Overdoses Cancel SF Gay Dance Party
This item, which appeared in today's Leah Garchik gossip column in the SF Chronicle, seems to me to be more of a local hard-news story than an entertaining tidbit for the Datebook section of the paper. If ambulances were called three times because party-goers were OD'ing on drugs, then this dance club scare should be covered from a health angle.I'll be very curious to see what harm-reduction steps the party hosts, along with gay health advocates, take for the gay pride dance party next month to prevent drug overdoses. It won't be much of a pride party if ambulances need to be on stand-by and their medical services needed because gays don't know how to safely use mood-altering drugs.
From the Chronicle:
The monthly gay dance party FreshSF, at Ruby Skye on Sunday night, was closed down by its organizers shortly after 10 p.m. after ambulances had to be summoned three times "to attend to people who had overdosed," says an online message from organizers Mike and Janine. The decision to shut the party down was reached with the Ruby Skye management, because "we thought the risk of another drop was too great, and we didn't want to take that chance." Organizers plan to go ahead with future parties, including their official T-Dance for San Francisco Pride.
"What we ask from you in return," they wrote to participants, "is to act responsibly, to be respectful of yourself and of course, to respect Ruby Skye's club and staff and to very simply be safe."
According to Outspokensf.com, the drug in question was GHB. And according to Projectghb.org, that's a clear liquid that results in "disinhibition, sedation ... giddiness, silliness." The number of overdoses, says the site, is larger than the number of overdoses from the drug ecstasy.
1 comment:
It is interesting to see, once again, 'disinhibition and sedation' as the reason to get high. Our community is so repressed that ecstacy and other drugs do not hit us fast enough.
With meth, we used to be happy snorting it and waiting for the pain and tears to subside and then we were lit. Now we must smoke this stuff so we're there faster.
As a society, we are repressed and as part of the GLBT community we're further repressed and while the state of CA is making great strides for same sex unions and other rights, this doesn't seem to be enough for individuals that need spirituality 101.
If we were happy and content with ourselves and spiritually grounded, there would be no need to get so high so fast that we overdose. In fact, just the act of dancing within our community, as the tribes of the world know, should be enough to get us as high as Jesus.
Of course, our overall shame, guilt and fear expressed on us by our government, religions and families can, for some of us, be so strong that there is no time for spiritual grounding and thus requires us to get as high as possible as quickly as possible.
I like your blog.
Carlos
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