Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (March 14, 2001)
8_______ _________ WedNESÓAy, M arc I h 14, 2001 Raver: Ecstasy is what you feel Continued frompoge 7______ the bunch who just go out and do other shit People have their own choices. You decide whether or not you want to do this drug; it’s your choice to eat the Feature The CI ac I camas P rínt Campus Poll How do you feel about raves? pill. It’s a drug. It*s a risk. The reason you’re taking a drug is to alter your sense of bei ng, you ’ re state of m ind. Thai ’ s th e reason I do drugs, to get into a different worl d, a different state of m ind, escape real ity, be i n a surreal surround ing. It’s fun; it’s like an adventure for me, 1 ike going on a car ride or something.” “Everyone has their own opinion, but mine is that I don’t think, I don’t know, I’m kind of mixed. You should go to a rave and have fun without doing the drugs. That’s okay. If you can’t then stay away. That’s what I say.” Is it reaDy that much of an immediate risk? I know people who ta ke la rge a mounts and nothin g seems to happen to them ? “It’s not, It’s rare occasions. Sometimes people’s bodies don’t agree with the drags. It’s not necessarily the drags; it could be the person and their ability to handle it. I guarantee I could pick out any person at a party and I probably have a higher tolerance than they do because I do it so much.” The phone rings and a third guy, sitting on the couch, takes the call. Marvin Noble The caller is looking for E and the guy has two different varieties, Rolls Royce and Blue note. So it’s just like acid (LSD), they just name it after... “Yeah, they just name it after the print or the press (that they stamp it with). There’s hundreds of different kinds of ecstasy, like press tabs, you can buy your own machine and press whatever the hell you want, throw a logo in there.” Cut it and then press it again... “Some people do that, that’s not good, a lot of people buy pills or MDMA powder and they cut it with other things. Then they press pills and that’s when ' bad pills get out because people want to make easy money.” Have you ever dealt E? “I don’t see anything wrong with raves but you really shouldn’t put yourself at risk by taking ec stasy and stuff. I’ve heard of other people dying from it You should be smarter and not do that” “I used to sel I drugs. I don ’ t anymore just because. But, it’s easy money, lots of easy money. If I would have worked this weekend, I could have made anywhere from $500 to $1000.1 can make as much in two nights as some people do on salary. Five hundred a night for two nights, all profit, and that’s how I went to parties, 1 didn’t have to pay for awhile because it was all profit money from Isaac Frederick drugs.” So what is the high like? “It’s a totally euphoric effect. It triggers chemical reactions in the brain that trigger a release of serotonin and brings out your emotions - joy, happiness, you fee I a closeness to others, like you can talk to someone and tel 1 them your life story, and you hardly know the person. It just makes you more open. That was the original purpose of the drug when psychiatrists used it, so people “I think they’re pretty dumb overall; I don’t really see the point, It seems like just a regular ‘going into aclubto dance’ kind of thing, but the main focus is to do drugs. Seriously that’s it and I think that’s pretty pathetic. Go dance but lay off the drugs. I’ve never been to one.I’ve been outside of them and people have come out.... they’re just Creepy, they’re just weird out of their mind and I don’t like them, so I’ll never go.” opened up.” So what does it fed like? “It’sjust euphoric, imagine the time you’ve been most happy in your life, like the time you graduated high school, or fell in love, or another really great feeling, just multiplied by a hundred, like the greatest feeling in the world. Ecstasy is the name of the drug, it’s the perfect name, ecstasy is really what you feel.” Every time? Don’t you get bad stuff sometimes? “There are bad pills going around; it’s not the drag, it’s when people take the shit and cut it” So what does it do to the music? Chanty Hess “Ecstasy heightens all of your senses; your sense of taste, touch, smell... you know, ifyou get a back rub from someone, it’s like the best back rub you’ve ever gotten before.” Do you ever get negative feelings? 3 ’■s' '' v ' < “The day after, you kind of get a hangover, like you get when you do anything.” When people are on it, do they ever get pissed off? “The drugs mess with your serotonin. If you get angry, you’ll rage way hard. Even though you’re chilled out, if someone tides you off, you’ll feel the rage.” So it heigh tens everything, the good and the bad ? “Yeah." So do you remember your best time? “There was this rave I went to out in New Orleans called Freakfest; Psychedelic Pimp Daddy Land. It had thousands ofparty kids with DJ’s from all around the world spinning there. They had four rooms of music, a party going on the rooftop, a party going on in the basement; it was in a theater, so they had a huge fucking show. They had two live crew, The Egyptian Lover, Rob Bass and DJ Easy Rock, DJ Dan, Moby.” So E isn’t something you can just do constantly and stay high? “No, you have to take more and more because it depletes the serotonin from your body; you need to give your body time to rebuild. It won2* do any good to take the drag if you don’t have the chemical in your brain. Some people take a “I don’t think they’re really a good thing and I’ve had friends that have gone to them. I think that if they’re controlled they’re OK, but there’s a lot more drug use and tilings like that and younger kids getting into things. The girl that ended up dying th is weekend was a friend of my roommates’; they were all friends and went to the same high school together. I think that if they’re gonna have raves they should be controlled more and there should be some sort of guidance or somebody watching out.,. some kind of chaperoning of them. There’s so much stuff that goes on - too many drugs that are getting slopped in people’s drinks or too many, people taking illegal drugs and dying or getting hurt or raped.” month break or a week break (in between E binges), just so they can build up their serotonin.” What do you think about all the talk going on about raves and E. Desire Hoppel “The thing about Melissa was about drugs, that and the party aren’t the same thing. Raves don’t kill people, the drugs do. She took the drags; she knew what she was in for. Anytime anyone goes out to a rave and does a drug, it’s their choice. They’re not going out to a rave because it’s a place where you can gd high, they’re going out there to mingle and have fun and meet people.” “Well I just know of them, I don’t really know what goes on. I mean I haven’t observed them. I don’t like crowd activities that can get out of hand. I mean I’m paranoid about crowd irrationality, so I tend to stay away from that. I mean - I’ve been in some political scenes where I justdon’t want to be part of it. There’s potential for irrational behavior on amass scale.” Jim Gronsand Photos by Gilbert Barrett Information compiled by Liesl Muggli and Gilbert Barrett
