NCJ Number
194800
Date Published
August 2004
Length
59 pages
Annotation
This guide for police training discusses the problems associated with rave parties, including drug use, drug overdoses, drug trafficking, theft, violence, noise, traffic control, and driving under the influence of drugs.
Abstract
This guide provides general approaches to effective strategies, such as prohibition by banning all parties and strictly enforcing all drug laws, or harm reduction, such as acknowledging that some illegal drug use and raves are inevitable, to be determined by the local public and political climate, as well as the police agencies. It discusses effective methods to ensure basic health and safety measures are in place, for example, ventilation, rest areas, water availability, accessible trained medical staff, how to support property owners in controlling raves by simply informing them of what raves are and helping them minimize harms and nuisances that will occur; keeping juvenile and adult ravers from attending the same parties; enforcing nuisance abatement laws; and prosecuting rave operators for drug-related offenses, educating ravers about the risks of drug use, and overexertion. Limited effectiveness has been found where anonymous drug-testing of ravers has been done, random patrols at raves, conducting roadblocks and vehicle searches at raves, and deploying off-duty police officers at raves. The guide concludes with two tables, a summary of responses to the problem of rave parties, and common rave-related drugs. References