From The Summer Of Love To The Great Dance Drugs Rip-Off

Matthew Southwell, Nicky Bath, Steve Dubois, Jane Byrne and Jaye Foster

Dance drugs Alliance, c/o Respect, PO Box 20717, London, E3, UK.

Phone no: (Mobile) 07989 400790 E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

1986 saw the origins of Acid House in Ibiza. This spontaneous reaction to the availability of MDMA was to lead to a revolution in youth culture and the birth of the chemical generation. The late 1980's saw one of the most dynamic battles of the War on Drugs. On one side there was a fusion of the empathic and collective sprit of MDMA devotees, mixed with the entrepreneurial sprit of the pay party promoters. On the other side were politicians who criminalised ecstasy as a class A drug, while launching a special unit within the Police, known as the Pay Party Unit, to disrupt and destroy this legitimate expression of youth culture. A classic cat and mouse game followed.

Prohibition ensured that the production and supply of party drugs and much of the security around the emerging Pay Parties, fell into the hands of organised crime. Importantly, the development of the dance drugs culture in the UK was taken out of the hands of the early MDMA evangelists. Quality of both ecstasy and the wider dance drugs experience, was increasingly overlooked, as profit became the primary motive for the illicit businesses.

When the authorities realised that they could not halt the spread of the dance drugs culture, they relaxed licensing laws, while upping the penalties for 'illegal' promoters. The explicit desire of both police and politicians was to drive this culture into a commercial club setting where it would be better monitored and controlled. The Head of Pay Party Unit, Ken Tappenden, was later to publicly acknowledge this strategy in an interview for Matthew Collin's history of ecstasy culture and acid house, 'Altered State'. It is also worthy of note that the first club in the UK to receive a 24 hour licence was owned by an ex-police officer.

While the main focus of this paper is the recent history in clubs, it is important to acknowledge the important alternative movement within dance drugs culture. The free party movement, while sharing the collective and empathic features of MDMA culture, rejected the free marketers engagement in the scene. The Free Party Scene, or Technivals as they were later to be known, had their heyday in early 1990's. It was not unusual for these events to last a week and to attract at their peak 20,000 revellers from all walks on life. They occurred largely hand-in-hand with new age travellers on temporary sites. The Free Party at Castlemorton in 1992 was perhaps the final straw. It saw a marked change in police tactics with Ken Tappenden being brought in as an advisor to the local police.

At a policy level, new powers began to be considered which was to lead to the introduction of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994. The CJA shamelessly breached the UN Charter on Human Rights. So punitive were these new laws, that many of the sound systems (such as Spiral Tribe) were driven into exile through fear of confiscation and prosecution.

In forcing the Free Party Movement into exile and suppressing the Pay Party Scene, the Police and Politicians seemed to have scored a major victory. Dance drugs culture in a UK context was shifted into a club setting given the new flexibility offered to commercial clubs. Initially this led to rapprochement between the 'new' organisers of the commercial drugs scene and the authorities. The Conservative Government seemed happy to see the dance drugs scene become increasingly dispersed and fragmented, as both the music and choice of drugs diversified. Even in this period there were casualties. Some key clubs experienced difficulties in co-existing with organised crime, illustrated most notably with the closure of Hacienda in Manchester. In addition, a small percentage of dance drug users faced heavy fines, job loss, social stigma and imprisonment as they fell foul of the law.

Throughout the remainder of the troubled Conservative Government's term in office, the only new policy initiative was an ill conceived and poorly designed private members bill. The Barry Legg Act gave the Police powers to close clubs where owner or promoters were seen to condone drug taking in their venues. In many ways, an individual MP forced the Government to make law an act of parliament which contradicted their covert strategy.

The New Labour Government's landslide victory seemed to mark a shift in drugs policy. Fears were provoked early on, when Tony Blair's Government introduced new restrictive legal classifications for drugs such as GHB and Amyl Nitrate. However, beyond these sound-bite policies, New Labour seemed happy to talk tough on drugs, while largely sticking to the previous Government's policies. Following the poor Labour showing in the recent European elections, a change of drugs policy seems to be in the air. Tony Blair and his closest policy makers have demonstrated a natural instinct to scapegoat drug takers and to condemn drugs culture. Urged on by the US, New Labour are talking of plans to clamp down on drugs in clubs, introduce mandatory drug testing for all offenders, and have even been rumoured to favour a new harder line Drug Tsar.

As such Government Policy remains completely hypocritical. Tony Blair is quick to repackage dance drugs culture as part of 'Cool Britannia'. The vibrant 24 hours cities, central to this vision, are the centres of dance drugs culture. Yet Politicians refuse to publicly acknowledge that changes in licensing laws, night-time social activities, music and clubs have all been chemically driven. The situation leaves dance drug users alienated, marginalised and criminalised. Many dance drug users languish in British prisons for buying, the chemical equivalent, of a round of drinks. There is some evidence to show that the Police in some areas are using their discretion within the drugs laws to most heavily penalise MDMA users.

UK dance drug users are a significant population of consumers, targeted by both licit and illicit commercial interests. However, we have no rights as consumers. We cannot discuss our culture openly without fear of persecution. Individual drug users are imprisoned, or exposed to health risks, because of the callous approach of Politicians and some club owners. The current threat of a new crack down on clubs, seems to have promoted greater secrecy. This in turn has allowed club owners to withdraw from safer clubbing initiatives in order to maximise profits. Even in the best clubs, the need to keep up the illusion of the War on Drugs, ensures that clubbers face intrusive searches from door staff. This only serves to create tensions and fears among dance drug users, which undermines the use of an empathogen such as MDMA. It also prevents dance drug users from protecting their health by buying quality drugs away from the dance floor rip-off merchants.

Before the club owners begin their usual mantra that their venues do not endorse drugs culture, let's just reflect back on the period around 1998. The Dutch Police were becoming increasingly successful in restricting access to a key component of MDMA - safrole. This led to a spate of poor pills on the UK dance scene for about a year. The results? The dance drugs industry went into sharp decline. Then the illicit chemists pioneered the use of PMK, a new synthetic precursor to MDMA. The result? A sudden revival on the back of the new MDMA filled Mitsubishis.

However, we should be careful not to forget the vital engagement between the drug and the setting within which it is used. The product being sold in clubs, at its best, is a fusion of good drugs, uplifting music, enlightened fellow dancers, mixed together in a safe and secure environment. Through marketing, club culture appears to become increasingly normalised. Yet the underbelly of the scene is far from the glitzy, hip and trendy public facade. For too long dance drug users have shrugged their shoulders at bad nights out and accepted this as a hazard of our social and cultural choices.

From this context, the Dance Drugs Alliance has been formed to bring together drug users from across the many different sub-cultures of the dance drugs community. Finding a common voice among scenes as diverse as the techno, trance, indie, house, and garage scenes (to name but a few) is clearly a challenge. However, despite our diversity, we share a common history, and a unified experience of exclusion, persecution and, for a random minority, prosecution and imprisonment.

The Dance Drugs Alliance seeks to bring together the various stake-holders in the dance drugs scene - DJs, VJs, club promoters, club owners and security staff but most importantly led by dance drug users ourselves. As dance drug users we demand our right to celebrate and protect the culture we were part of forming. We want to be free to share our positive experience with new generations of drug users in order to create the cultural norms which are so important to securing healthy and functional drug taking.

We are not opposed to the industry that has grown up around our culture but we have a legitimate right to a significant voice in its future direction. Also we believe the Criminal Justice Act should be repealed to allow the free party scene to once again play its part in UK dance drugs culture. There need to be proper regulation of all settings for dance drugs culture which should be a precursor to a new legal, regulated environment for drug taking.

However, we cannot afford to wait for these long term goals to be achieved. The Dance Drugs Alliance plans to develop a set of standards for dance drugs settings based on a consultation process with dance drug users. In the next summer season, we will be conducting unannounced inspections of dance drugs venues and challenging promoters to ensure that they meet the standards expected by their consumers. Venues will be encouraged to improve their practice and persistent poor practice will be exposed through the media and internet. Consumer choice is a powerful tool but one that can only operate with proper information. The Dance Drugs Alliance will also ask those that have made profits from our culture to share the benefits with the people who have long funded their careers.

The Dance Drugs Alliance is still under development, but we have already received huge support from key figures and commentators on the dance drugs scene. We need to create a constructive discourse between dance drug users and others involved in the scene. Our aim is to challenge those involved in the great dance drugs rip off, while supporting those who have consistently sought to retain the founding principles of MDMA based dance culture.