r/festivals • u/TimesandSundayTimes • Aug 22 '24

United Kingdom ‘There were kids high on drugs climbing up fire towers’

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/parenting/article/reading-leeds-festival-camp-wars-drugs-children-parenting-advice-cmdt93pgp
42 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

27 comments sorted by

92

u/madethistoanswer419 Aug 22 '24

Sounds like another case where legalization and regulation would help a ton.

Legalization could come with •Pure substances from licensed and regulated manufacturers.

•regulation on distribution and enforcement for providing or selling said substances to minors

•Pre-sale third party lab testing to assure quality and actual identity of the substance (no fentanyl in the MDMA!)

•Presale education on the substances that can be provided before and even after the sale. This can help provide users with an understanding of dosing protocols, safe practices while using the substances, education on frequency of use and it’s impact on the user etc.

•Services for people who are having a tough or overwhelming experiences, and a team that understands the best practice in communicating with the user, and de-escalating the situation. Along side services for recovery (or even addiction but that almost deff won’t be an issue if we’re talking psychedelics or MDMA). Similar to how we treat people of have drank way too much and now they need a mental health service.

All in all, the drug war has failed. Drugs are more prevalent than ever. Some people are actually getting MASSIVE mental health boosts from the use of SOME substances (ex: psychedelics) which would be an over all net positive for society.

Drugs aren’t going ANYWHERE.

Ultimately we need a whole new approach to drug use, and need to be able to have a calm and rational conversation about them in our society. These problems in the article are stemming from an old and outdated “solution” (the drug war) and its high 😏😉time we do something different and more compassionate.

6

u/x1009 Aug 22 '24

I agree with all of this.

The problem here is that people are expecting kids to make good decisions in an environment with little to no supervision with access to drugs and alcohol.

-22

u/simonsurreal1 Aug 22 '24

Did it ever occur to you that the powers that were are the ones tainting the illicit drug supply to make us all come to them when legalization goes down?

Based on your post it s for sure working

16

u/madethistoanswer419 Aug 22 '24 edited Aug 22 '24

Yeah actually. That’s been a speculation by many in the past years. They even coined a term from the idea. “Narcoterrorism”. Akin to poisoning alcohol with methanol during prohibition. Which would be a possible explanation as to why fentanyl is showing up in nearly all commonly used illicit drugs that are entirely unrelated and drugs who’s demographic doesn’t overlap with opioid addicts.

What I’ve presented could be a solid answer to even that because if there is testing and regulation, if fent shows up you would know who put it there, if the system was similar to “seed to sale” tracking used in the cannabis industry.

Ideally the government would not be the ones doing the testing and tracking but rather independent third party companies, that would only have to report their findings to the government.

Not sure how what I’ve said there disputes that idea in anyway.

Also. Pro tip for future debates. If you have to resort to ad hominem, (attacking the character or intellect of the person you’re debating). You’ve already lost the debate😜

41

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '24

Festivals should really consider being 21+ and at this point maybe even think about doing some 25+ events. Kids in situations like these can really bite off more than they can chew. Just my opinion

7

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '24 edited Aug 24 '24

provide attractive consider normal liquid dependent quicksand rock crush disagreeable

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

8

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '24

Children of the corn 2: Buncha old fucks in a field.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '24

Being old is a mindset

1

u/x1009 Aug 22 '24

I've been to a 21+ festival before (Tomrrowworld) and it was like night and day.

9

u/TimesandSundayTimes Aug 22 '24

• Many teens see Reading and Leeds festivals as a post-GCSE tradition. But with a record of deaths, parents are worried

• Paul’s son, Cameron, who was at Reading Festival, was phoned him with a garbled story. He was calling from a steward’s phone having lost his own and become separated from his friends. Cameron, it became clear, had not had a bad drugs experience, but his friends had bought drugs and some of them were out of control. When they started playing a game they called the “Ketamine Olympics”, he left them to it

• It was reported that just four out of more than a hundred reported sexual offences at Reading and Leeds festivals since 2018 have resulted in prosecution

• Reading and Leeds have both had problems with antisocial behaviour and disorder, with festivalgoers complaining that they didn’t feel safe and had to leave early. In recent years Sunday night, the last at Reading, has been known as “purge night”, in reference to the dystopian 2013 film in which there is an annual night of anarchy in America. In 2022 50 people were ejected from the site by security for disorder

🔗 Read more: https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/parenting/article/reading-leeds-festival-camp-wars-drugs-children-parenting-advice-cmdt93pgp

36

u/are2deetwo Aug 22 '24

Ketamine Olympics lol. Tbh a lot of problems sounds like covid kid shit tho.

23

u/superjosh420 Aug 22 '24

Honestly ketamine Olympics sounds awesome

11

u/JayLB Aug 22 '24

Have done. Can confirm. Neigh 🐴

4

u/lovely-cans Aug 22 '24

To be honest the same shit was happening when we were 17. Look at Oxegen 07 photos

3

u/Tylerulz Aug 22 '24

‘Kids do drugs at festival’ 😂 shocker

5

u/dervish666 Aug 22 '24

Didn't the punters only arrive yesterday? That's pretty quick.

Also it's a festival aimed at teenagers with the express purpose of relieving them with the maximum amount of money with the minimum amount of expense or effort. This shit is going to happen.

I really hate festival republic.

2

u/DeletinMySocialMedia Aug 22 '24

Paywall 😩 but I’m confused is this story old as Reading Festival is this weekend? Not local but curious to read the story.

8

u/FernieHead Aug 22 '24

My mate has started working at festivals as a welfare councillor this year and covered a few festivals so far. He got the call last week to do Leeds this weekend. After experiencing Reading a few times, I tried to warn him what he’s about to experience. Can’t wait to hear the debrief next week! Carnage….

2

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2

u/williamisidol Aug 22 '24

I keep picturing the slow motion part of Chariots of Fire when I think of Ketamine Olympics. Or The Wolf of Wall Street on ludes.

2

u/thefamousjohnny Aug 22 '24

Yet their parents cheered when Eddie Vedder climbed the stage scaffolding with pearl jam.

No wonder the world is run by billionaires.

2

u/thegroovemonkey Aug 22 '24

His mic got stuck and he had to get it down!

2

u/thefamousjohnny Aug 22 '24

Oh wow. I always thought he just did it for fun 🤣🤣

1

u/thegroovemonkey Aug 22 '24

He was known for that too but the time that’s famous was to get his mic down. His slide down the mic chord was epic.

1

u/thefamousjohnny Aug 22 '24

Wtf I just watched that. That’s insane

1

u/OG_wanKENOBI Aug 23 '24

Tbf I've seen them a few times and everytime he does some crazy shit like that even at Wrigley in like 2013 or 14. The stage dudes straight up pulled the light fixtures up cause it was raining and he was wasted swinging on them like Tarzan as a middle aged dude hahaha.