Here is an essay I wrote about the drug problem for in the clubscene at the early 90..s for the GROOVE Magazine. In 1995 it was published again in the techno-house anthology LOCALIZER, Berlin ............................................................ ................................................ JUST SAY NO TO DRUGHYSTERIA ........................................................ Recently, dubious press reports on the subject of "Techno" have been on the increase, featuring lurid discriptions of how, for eg., "our children" turn into monsters through the use of "sex pills". Yet again the media displays its complete incompetence to objectivly report on and reflect current musical revolutions and the inherent drug usage. Instead a very dangerous and one sided campaign of demonization is being orchestra ted, consequently the average man on the street is being fed a totally distorted picture of the facts. This in turn creates an excessive police presence whenever the sound of techno is in the air, hence raids, club closures and special commisions follow. According to insider reports, the government officials who pull the strings are now attemting to eradi cate this musical plague from whole counties. A "scientist" proclaimed in the "Bild" newspaper that techno consists of unnatural frequencies that don't exist on earth, and must therefore come from space. A german magazine of repute even published an article in which it was stated that techno was the wokr of aliens, and contains hidden post hypnotic suggestions which, at the flick of a switch could turn us into zomboid robots. "Is ET on XTC?" Is this a joke? Sadly not, for reality has yet again superseded itself. Welcome into the Black Zone. Before we begin, one thing we'd like to set straight is that this article does not to intend to promote the use of drugs, nor does it attempt to smooth over existing problems. Instead it proposes reasonable reme dies to counteract any potential social collapse, and takes a positive stance against the threat of cultural oppression. It is a plea for the di solving of crusty legal frameworks, and cleans up the horror stories and disinformation. Why does GROOVE take upon itself this drug related problem? Be cause music and drugs have been connected since time began, and current events (club closures etc.) command us to contribute to the process of sensetizing, the broadening of consciousness before it's too late. This report illuminates the situation directly from the roots, and does not come from the desk of a grim rank and file citizen. Virtually no other topic has been dealt with so stupidly. Legends con stantly resurface: the "Devil Substance" which causes addiction to the first time user (no drug is capable of this), "Heroin Sweeties" in play grounds, not forgetting the story on the backburner of all paranoids: the innocent village beauty whose coca cola is spiked by evil drug fiends in order to sell her into the white slave trade. Of couse there are exceptions that test the rule, but this is very far from reality. The empty talk of bar zombies is used by the media in hardly sublimated form, in order to falsely influence opinion. The grotesque twist to all of this, is that the city of Frankfurt is considering free distribution of heroin to addicts, thus admitting the total failure of previous drug control po licies, and for once giving common sense a chance. Why then are the police and the politicians sensationalizing the use of MDMA (Ecstacy) in the techno scene, considering this drug isn't even physically addic tive? Is the same mistake going to be made yet again? If one were to believe the scare mongering concerning the alleged events in Mainz's "Discothek M", one would have to come to the con clusion that exorcists should be sent to this "dark spot" immediatly. Hence we had the privilege of reading of this "international drug haven", "the worst drug disco" and "drug haven no. 1" in this spectacular propa ganda raid the police found 115 g hashish and 67 unrefined ecstacy pills lying on the floor. Dear police, with this huge hashish caché you could hardly cover the monthly needs of one old hippie. The 67 pills have not been analysed. Why not? Surely they ought to be tested be fore any media hype. In addition to this we know that not all policemen are angels - one would only have to take a look at recent drug/police scandals and then let the citizen decide the real truth for himself: who is the more criminal? The morally upright members of the drug unit, or young people sharing a few joints at a weekend party? Anyway, con gratulations on a great success, using only 100 policemen. Wow...! These rediculous scenarios have a long history in drug inforcement, reaching back to Harry Anslinger. Immediatly upon his appointment as chief of the US Narcotics Bureau in 1932, Anslinger published a series of articles entitled "Marihuana Madness - Our Youth in Jeopardy", and simultaneously instigated a massive media campaign against the domastic use of cannabis. These articles resolved around "murder, mayhem and marihuana", including stories of child abuse and suicide due to smoking a single joint. This mam later became head of the UNO delegation, and by 1961 sixty leading countries had signed his "Uniform Drug Convention" which brings us full circle to the present. Alcohol pro hibition in the USA of the 30's led to increased traffiking or illicit alcohol. Huge amounts of cheap booze (wood alcohol) were distilled, resulting in blindness, permanent disability and deaths. The situation gave rise to the mafioso type practices we know today. Prohibition was lifted after a few years, but the mafia remained, and readjusted to other more pro fitable illicit areas. Of these, drugs were seen to hold the highes fi nancial rewards, and in time, the mafia acquired vast wealth. Now the ghost of Harry Anslinger haunts our social lives, and since he is ob viously understood best in catholic strongholds such as Bavaria and Rheinland-Pfalz, they quickly perceived the rebirth of the evil empire which once again is calling us to the St. Vitus Dance of these Alien Techno Beats. Comparisons to the good old days spring to mind: "As soon as the music started, he went berserk. Electric-shocks shook his body from head to toe. His hips jerked, and his legs vibrated like pneumatic drills" (US cine-magazine "Modern Screen" about Elvis in 1955) In those days a law against Rock n' Roll was being considered, which was intended to bring the "lunacy infecting our youth" to an unnatural end. If we compare conditions today with those days, we can actually see a development - sadly in the wrong direction. In Munich which, let us not forget, is ruled by the social-democrats, the owners of the P1 club were reminded upon receiving their licence after it had been withdrawn as the result of an obscure raid, that as soon this "techno-stuff" was played in the club, the licence would again be withdrawn immediatly. And also in catholic Mainz "techno never again" is to be heard from the powers that be. It is, therefore, a fact that an indirect ban on a certain style of music is being prepared. At this juncture let us underline, that actually the movement we are talking about here is in essence exemplary for society at large. Love, peace and understanding - what's wrong with that? At almost no mega rave has there been even the slightes trace of violence, something which is unimaginable for just about every other musical sector, from Hip Hop and Heavy Metal festivals etc. right down to the pub with a juke-box. Of course drugs are consumed in the techno movement, and nobody is denying it. But take a look around you at an average metal concert, a reggae session or a hip hop gig, and you are likely to see more and worse substances being drunk, sniffed, jacked up or smoked.... The blinkers must be removed as soon as possible. This situation reminds me of an announcement of President Bush made to the nation: he held up a lump of cocaine on TV and told the astonished viewers that the cops had found this in the park right across the way of the White House. Only a few days later, his secretary ad mitted to snorting the stuff 20 times a day. In other words, he needn't have gone all the way to the park... What should be clear by now, is that drugs are a problem for the whole of society. As the media keeps re minding us, apart from hashish, ecstacy and speed are the most wide spread drugs being used in the rave community today. The role played by alcohol and opiates is negligible. Amphetamine ("Speed") is a sub stance which even a general doctor may subscribe if he believes it to be necessary. Only a few years ago this illegal poison was freely avail able in every pharmacy. It was sold as a medium to facilitate slimming, and was used mainly by housewives. You'll also come across it in the military: pilots of all nations have used it ever since it was implemented during the first World War, indees every pilot involved in the recent Gulf War had a pure gramm of the stuff in his supplies, to be used during night flights. Some of these have resurfaced in their original wrapper since the war in the so-called drug scene. Ecstacy (also known as E or by its proper name MDMA) was developed by Merck company scientists in 1914 near Darmstadt. It was almost forgotten, until the US military (who crop regularly in the history of mind bending substances) dug out the formula and used it for a series of tests on animals in 1953. It was from these tests that the knowledge was devined, exactly how much of the drug a pig or a dog can survive. In the 70's it was succesfully implemented by psychiatrists and psy chologists when dealing with psychosis, and after slowly trickling into the drug scene, it was forbidden in 1985. This ban ensured the massive popularity it enjoys today. The promising name Ecstacy is actually a bit of mis-nomer. It is not an aphrodisiac, and so the wild stories about the "sex pills" are pure exaggeration and the results of the screwed-up fantasies of screwed-up people. It is true, that with this drug, the ability to express feeling is en riched, dance and music are experienced more intensively and a feeling of satisfaction spreads outwards. Nobody turns egoistic, mean, angry or violent when enjoying its effects. It is not a trip, the floor doesn't va nish from beneath your feet and strange hallucinations don't appear. Nothing which was not already latently evident, rises to the surface. You could phone your mother, and she wouldn't notice anything. However it is not a cure for all ills, and overuse can damage psyche and body. The same applies to alcohol and other legal drugs. Ecstacy is extremely dangerous if overdosed or cut uncleanly. Extreme caution is the rule here. by Peter Huber (Dope Media) in 1993.Just say no to drughysteria part twoThe most important aspect of the drug poblem remains criminalisation and the repercussions thereof. Everybody ought to ponder the following points. 1. There will have to be an end to the pattern of thinking which reasons that there are "good" legal drugs (alcohol, medecines, nikotin etc.) and bad" illegal drugs. There has never been a death due to smoking hashish, either in Germany or elsehere. The premise that hashish paves the way for all other drugs is false, since everybody's behaviour is different. We can count the number of ecstasy deaths on the fingers of one hand, yet every year over 150.000 people die due to the effects of smoking cigarrettes or drinking alcohol. In Germany, alcohol is the addiction problem number one, especially amongst youth - in this country alone there are over 500.000(!) alcoholic children and youths, yet this information is supressed very efficiently. Need we say more about the health of the nation? The media, meanwhile, declares that the 7000 or 1500 drug deaths are caused soley by the effects of ALL illegal drugs together. Yet the facts tell another story. Often the cause of death is the effect of mixing drugs and medicines (eg. Rohypnol in the case of junkies) fatigue because of the lifestyle, and dirty drugs. All these are attributable to the criminalisation of the drugs rather than to the drugs themselves. Anybody overdoing it with drugs is punishing himself anyway, so why ought he be punished twice? 2. "We weren 't looking for a massive amount of drugs, neither were we out to catch a major dealer." said Mainz's police commissioner after the raid. Police measures, carried out in the course of up-holding the law, more often than not hit the harmless weekend consumer, whose integration in society, and lifestyle usually suffers as a result of this brush with the law; some of those not suitable to wihstand the terror hang themselves in prison. It's time to face up to the fact that the drugs are available, and severe punishment is not the answer to the problem. Period. 3. Illegality has placed the drug trade firmly in the hands of organised, somtimes obscure gangs. This leads to varying qualities, and to ignorance on the part of the customer, who doesn't quite know what he's getting. It is pretty obvious what emerges when criminals have the upper hand - a brief look to Italy will suffice. Anybody in Italy who looks like he's got a little money is consciously lured to the needle, and thus the entire rave scene has been systematically undermined by heroin addiction. That's an example we don't need to follow. By the way, let the mafia deal in the really potent substances - there already exist some horrific poisons said to be between 800 and 100 times stronger than heroin! Unless we do something fast we will soon be experiencing a situation where US crackslums will look like luxury holiday homes. The only way out of this dilema, is for the state to control the field, as they already do with the legal drugs. It is time for German drug users to enjoy the benefits of German's nutritional purity legislation. Let's get rid of the spiked pills from the ex-Eastern Bloc! 4. The idiotic media-campaining must stop! There are a lot of good people in the rave scene, with a huge creative potential. Society is only harming itself if it shuts these people down. The whole situation could be compared to the hippie movement members of which have turned out to be vital to society; all this despite the fact that if the rumours about the massive amounts of LSD they were consuming every day were to be believed, they ought all to have jumped out the windows by now. The fears about possible damage to the chromosomes substantiated either. Nevertheless they did an incredible amount of innovative work in the fields of ecology, future technologies and especially computer research. The computer company Apple, for example, which enjoys worldwide recognition, is a product of the hippie movement. E.T.A. Hofmann, the writer whom every German knows from school days was a drug user; Sigmund Freud, certainly not unknown, liked cocaine, and even wrote some very long essays about this "magic substance". Johann Wolfgang von Goethe knew of the pleasures of Opium, Uwe Barschel, German christian democrat politician enjoyed a regular dose of Tavor which was still legal during his lifetime. The editor of Spiegel magazine Rudolf Augstein is a passionate advocate of hashish, and it doesn't seem to have done this 70 year old any damage. The list is long, however this article isn't titled Viva la Droga as some of you might have suspected. Here's one more comparison to ponder the Munich Oktober-fest the worlds greatest orgy of eating and drinking, is an event at which people come from all countries, all social strata and all ages in order to celebrate together, to get to know each other and to enjoy their music. Every year the event is officially declared open by the Bürgermeister, and is portrayed generally as a benevolent affair by the media; in short, something for which Germany is envied. However, everybody is aware that parallel to these festivities, a monsterparty takes place, at which murder, robbery, fighting, rape, misuse of drugs and overdoses of legal drugs are established practice. Yet this is accepted by all involved, and nobody is to be seen running around the beer-tents, crying over the young virgins ruining themselves. In order to understand the discrepancy between the two "value systems" look at this bizzare example: In Berlin the senator for the interior declares the Love Parade to be open, by performing the littie ceremony of swallowing a tab of MDMA and hollering "It's down the hatch!" into the microphone. TV cameras scan the thousands of ravers, who immediatly begin putting joints into each other's mouths. At home, father grunts something to the effect that this scum deserves the death penalty, while mother fondly remembers the days when the whole family went to the Mayday together, and the time that father, while on ecstasy did his duckish mating dance for her at the OMNI XIV rave. Meanwhile the son is firing criticism at the father, making some comparisons to ancient drinking rituals, and pointing out that father too is always flying on some tabs or powders. That's how it is, the son is in the underground ffolkmusic scene (the number of f's being an indicator of how degenerate the music is), and has been punished for traces of alcohol found in the blood. The ffolkmusic clubs - shaken by the hard line the police are taking - have opted for a softer image, and are now writing Schlager, and putting guilt ridden and paranoid statements like music is the only drug on their invitations. Message understood? But back to conditions as they exist today. It has been proven, that an addicted person - whatever he or she may be addicted to - has been carrying this illness around since birth, it now seems almost certain that the condition of addiction is fascillitated by genetic factors. We can therefore compare the drug addict to the homosexual; the gay man was born gay - even if it didn't transpire until later in life. Nobody made him gay, he didn't suddenly turn gay. Nobody would consider yelling at a gay man or woman, telling them to stop being gay! There's no point explaining to him how wrong his ways are, and needless to say, the worst thing possible, would be to imprison him or otherwise punish him. This could only lead to an accumulation of hate on the victim 's part, and a total failure to reintegrate into society. lt may seem as if the case of gays and of drug users are not very similar, however there are some parallels, and it is high time for drug users to learn from other discriminated minorities and get organised. Get a lobby together, work against the negative hype, and make sure the music stays in our hands! Some more thoughts on the drug that is music: the authorities responsible in these matters would be well advised to take into consideration that a very vigorous and promising industry is raising its head and growing, which is closely linked with this phenomenon: "Techno". Should these authorities intend to close down Techno discos and start implementing a ban on the music itself, they would simultaneously be killing this young industry, an industry which in this and other regions has grown to become an economic force in its own right, and which is constantly expanding. Another factor they ought to consider, is the positivity with which this movement is being received outside of Germany. They would of course know this, if they had read the Special feature on the Mainz-Wiesbaden scene in GROOVE, and they would also be aware that the next Beatles might come from Taunusstein, or maybe Nieder-Ursel. Let us not forget that in England Pop music advanced to become the foremost industry of the nation, and that today Paul McCartney is richer than the Queen. And all this was also due to freaks who tock drugs and made music... To round up, here are some more thoughts on the matter at hand. Drugs can in general be defined as amplifiers for particular realms of human experience. Once taken, they release Endorphines and so-called neurotransmitters in the brain, which immediately go about triggering the desired state of well-being. This "Persuit of Happiness" is protected in America by the US-Constitution. Drugs are only one of many possible ways to bring about this desired state, they do however probably represent the most widespread method. It therefore seems more accurate to speak of consciousness broadening substances, rather than of narcotics. lf this simple definition were to be accepted by the authorities, the obstacles would be removed, and a state-run research programme into consciousness broadening substances which do NOT pose a threat to health could be conducted. This programme will almost certainly be conducted, for it is human nature to make the most intelligent choice - after having tried out all the stupid ones first. Considering the developments in the fields of brainmachines, cyberspace etc. it seems possible that the underground will be able to get high without the use of chemical or biological crutches. (What are you going to do about that, dear cops?) Whatever happens, we can expect some changes soon on the drug-front, for some legislative wheels have already started turning. In Lübeck a judge has put his legal weight behind the legalisation of drugs, and supports the persuit of happiness of the citizens. "Intoxication is a fundamental element of life, just like food, drink and sex." Furthermore he is quoted as saying, that the use of drugs is "a method for escaping the straight jackets imposed by Last news: the Mainz Public Prosecutor is raising charges against"M"-manager Joachim Muno, for not having properly supervised proceedings in his establishment. Should these charges stand, (this will be decided during the course of the summer) German disco owners will have to be prepared for the worst. The repercussions of this judgement will be, that the cops can send somebody into a club with two grammes of hashish on him, then minutes later, arrest him spectacularly in the club. This is a great new way for the police to close down a club they don't like. But it seems as if there is a secret passion for Techno simmering away in the deepest sub-conscious nooks and crannies of the Mainz police force. While they searched the "M" club for traces of drugs, the DJs tape continued running, the commissioner grabbed the mic, and let loose on a couple of hard rhymes. The whole lot was captured on tape in top quality, and now a local Techno-label has remixed this material and is releasing it under the fitting title "Razzia" (Raid). It's sure to be a club-hit from Mainz to New York, and since it's already being pressed, there's not much anybody can do to stop it. Maybe this co-production could be the first of a wave joint artistic ventures. We expect local A & R managers to pre-empt further raids - waving contracts waiting to be signed. We therfore wish to take this opportunity of thanking the Mainz Police Posse in the name of the German Techno scene for their exemplary engagement when it comes to top notch cultural performance. Peter HuberJust say no to drughysteria part threeThe first part of this widely discussed and controversially received article was aimed primarly at idiotic police measures and based media coverage in matters "Techno". Furthermore it attempted to raise some relatively unknown yet important aspects in the discussion on drugs. In this third part we will try to dive deeper into the historical and sociological backround of this topic, as well as throwing some light on the relationship between drugs, music and clubs - in former times and now. First of all the news: "The Empire" in Siegburg is to have its concession returned, and is planning to claim for damages. Goodluck! The "M" in Mainz is likewise intending to reopen its gates, this time however, administration will be in the hands of a new inoffensive lisence-holder, and the music will be compatible with this regions conservative frame of mind. However the club, which had been dubbed the area's number one drug market, will have its quota of Techno - Sundays from 12.00-2.00 - to be co-ordinated by formet owner Joachim Muno. Seems things can't have been that heavy after all, considering that the "Grünen" released their first 12 inch "Razzia" (Raid) which however did have to be cleaned of its Rap passage. Maybe this year they'll manage to get one of their nice green mariahs ready for the Love Parade. But seriously, the lid hasn't been closed on the "M"-affair yet, it's about to enter an important phase: the charges against Joachim Muno are to be heard on the 15th of June at 9,00 sharp in the Mainz courthouse, and from then onwards we'll probably be hearing "Welcome to the club" every Tuesday. Entrance to these events is free of charge, and a club-card isn't necessary, although gasmasks, whistles and bak-pak TVs are more than welcome. At this juncture we'd like to thank our readers for the huge response we got to part 1 of this article. We have never received so much positive feedback for an articie of ours, and this is surely proof that our readers aren't as stupid, as some of the genuine stupids claim. We did nevertheless receive some pretty undifferentiated accusations of glorification of drugs, probably from members of the hardline anti-drug movement. They were unable however to either back their claims up with proof, nor were they in a position to put forward any alternative viewpoints to our theories. Example: Speed was obtainable in the form of a slimming compound - no prescription necessary - from any chemist, only a couple of years ago. That's a fact, and not "glorification' - irrespective of whether this substance is "good" or "damaging". lt is true, that for reasons of space we didn't deal in great depth with the health aspects of drugs, however this does not mean that this aspect has been forgotton. Surely it was self-evident to the slightly more intelligent critics that we were mainly concerned with the situation of those involved in these affairs, and the discrimination they suffer at the hands of laws and prejudices which seem medieval; laws which could have been laid down by paranoid monastery-brewers during the main distilling season. In these times, in which subjects like violence, paedophelia, torture, S+M and just about everything else can be discussed in the slightest details at any coffee round; times in which every masochist, gay, lesbian, or seeker of political asylum is organised in some form of minority organisation, and thus has a lobby for his views/tendencies, it is the drug consumer who finds him/herself described as - and treated as - the scum of society. For the keepers of the law it is always the hunting season and the drug consumer is always in their mercy. Adhering closely to the motto "hashish and heroin - equally malignant because equally forbidden", it was the state's repressional policies relating to drugs, which first brought about the situation they're presently trying to combat. In order to difuse the truly dangerous aspects of drugs, an objective and all encompassing campaign of information would first be necessary, a measure which has been fundamentally repressed until now. The fact that drugs have accompanied man on his way and during his creative process for as far back as history can take us, the fact that drugs are widely available, and the faKt that both of the above are hardly going to change - these are facts we must accept and meet them eye to eye. Our personal stance towards these substances is another matter. Of course it's no problem to rush around, constantly spouting simplistic paroles, such as "No power for drugs" (German Govt.), or "Get energized without drugs" (Musicians against drugs), in truth, it's the easiest way to elevate yourself to the conscience of the nation. It would be just a little too naiv, though, to believe that in the situation we have today, anybody could be spared anything - or indeed be saved from anything - however genuine the intention behind these campaigns may be. This behavinur only serves to unnecessarly trigger a guilt function in the consumer, and simultaneously hides a lack of knowledge the size of which could be compared to the national deficit. One of the main aspects which is generally white-washed is the history of drugs and the histories of the original dealers". In order to explain the present twisted attitude to drugs, a study of the era in which drugs were ripped from their cultish-historical background is vital. in the 16th and 17th centuries the first waves of narcotics washed ashore; coffee and tobacco swept in commercially, and this at a time when daily consumption of alcohol was enormous. These were also the days of distilling and burning, which not only served to alter the patterns of drinking, but also scarred the drinker's mind and body. Consequentially practices of trading and commerce were updated and made more efficient, while the aristocracy was obviously delighted by the rise in income through taxes and tarifs. In the days of colonialism the trend to amass capital from drug trading was extensive and finally resulted in the famous "Opium Wars". In 1677 the Dutch, closely followed by the British, were granted the export monopoly on opium in Asia, this resulted in the flooding of China with Opium - it is estimated that in 1870 there were 20 million Opium addicts in China. The cities Hong Kong and Shanghai were founded thanks Opium trading. Around the beginning of the 19th century the medicinal value of opium in the form of morphium was discovered. For not a few soldiers and military personnel the wars ended in mor phium addiction. Trade with the colonies and new wars allowed the distribution and usage of this substance to boom, and slowly but surely every important harbour city in the world was flooded, indeed in the colonies it was already established as a basic nutrient In England and France it became the norm for members of the higher social circles to smoke or to eat opium, there are even tales of "injection-rounds" among the bored ladies of the upper class. From the 18th century onwards poppy seed was cultivated in Europe too, which, along with delicious sweets and cakes (mainly Austrian) also gave the modern world the original soother for infants. It functioned a little like this: a thin cloth was wrapped around a (incised?) poppy seed husk, the whole affair was then plunged first into honey, and then into the mouth of the crying infant which went very quiet, very quickly and was soon enjoying a deep sleep. This popular domestic soothing method was being used in Germany well into this century, and is somewhat reminiscient of gutter press headlines warning of "Heroin sweets in play-grounds". At the turn of this century the Beyer company was succesful in synthesizing morphium in order to develop a substance which would allieviate the scurge of addiction. The name of this new magic substance: heroin. At this point the chemical industries entered a mechanism, a continuing cycle which they were never to leave: one substance was developed after the other, each one, though discontinuing one addiction, simply taking ever and established itself as a new addictive drug. The Hoechst company were successful during the nazi period with a compund called polamidon (also called Adolfin on the streets). This was an opiat, known today as methadon, which is said to heal heroin addiction. Which it does, but what is going to heal methadon addiction? lt ought to be obvious by now, that the aim is not release from addiction, but rather making sure that the junkies go to work and don't commit crime, it also helps keep them quiet, they don't attract as much negative attention, and the statistics on drug related deaths are acceptable. When it comes to cocaine, it's a similar story - from German chemical companies straight to the brain! In the 19th century, during vital manoevers, Bavarian soldiers were given their doses of coke by the military doctor. The result: "they exhibit above average performance and stamina". In 1886 the Americans introduced a drink which contained cocaine, and which was popular for precisely that reason: N-Joy Coca-Cola. In the Berlin of the 20's coke was a prevalent stimulant certainly as widespread as it is today. It's from those days that we've inherited the saying "talking kokolores" - it pertains to the jabbering of the coke-user. If we were to proceed, in similar fashion, and look at the history of the other illegal drugs, we'd soon observe that they were all launched on the market by the pharmaceutical industry, each one being accompanied by a massive advertising campaign. Each one, they claimed, was the magic healer. By the time each substance came to be banned, there was already a huge demand for it, thus banning it could only have the effect of changing the nature of purchase, and not the bulk sold. It's also significant, that it was always the military who experimented with these substances first, but that's a story for another day. Let's instead move on, and examine the relationship between drugs and music; in order to trace the development right up to the today's situation (Hippies/ Techno/ Trance), it is important to follow the changes in subcultural and alternative movements in general. There, namely, lies the crux of the matter - the fulcrum. lt is not the drug itself, or the effects it is known to have, it is who is taking the drug, and why is he or she taking it? This is the essence of the drug question. In the USA a list of internal enemies was compiled and has been constantly updated since the turn of the century. The term "internal enemies" refers to communists, student-activists, Jewish and Italian gangsters, trade unionists, sexually and politically independent women, jazz and rock musicians. The propoganda machine of the US government has constantly attempted to either highlight or even invent the relationship between persons critical of the system on the one hand, and drugs on the other, thus emphasizing the inherent illegality of these selected people or groups. Campaigns were initiated to combat "communist drug-dealers" or "LSD-confused student leaders". Furthermore there has always been a detectable element of racism in these campaigns; "cocaine-crazed nigger-brains" for example, check out today's not quite coincidental mentioning of crack whenever we come accross hip-hop. From this we can gather, that more often than not, it has been the aim of state "drug enforcement" agencies to slur the characters of their foes, rather than to stop the using of drugs. After both world wars the West experienced a time of ruthless materialism, obviously the younger generation called out for some sort of regulatory balance, an alternative. This desire was expressed in alternative lifestyles, sexual pleasure, and music which was aimed against the establishment. Drugs which had been legally obtainable were suddenly banned, society was manipulated and taught to shun anybody who dared use drugs in a recreational context, especially anybody from those camps that were seen as threatening to society. Moralists united to vilify the"depraved youth", and their "nigger's and devil's music" complete with "jungle rythms". In western metropoles inumerable "dens of sin" opened, their audience and customers comprising members of the so-called bohemian lifestyle, artists, political activists, high society and gangsters. The movie "Cotton Club" documents this blend of Jazz and gang crime in the America of the twenties. Dance music, clubs and drug addiction were henceforth the target of the bourgeois front, who sought to combat these evils with increasing vehemence. Since many musicians took drugs, they also wrote songs about drugs. As a result, there were already over 100 registered song titles which dealt with - or mentioned - this topic as early as the 1930's. Of course there was always the faction that merely mentioned drugs in order to give their songs a little "credibility" and thus boost sales. In Germany too, a song called "Mommy the man with the coke is back" enjoyed popular success. All this motivated our old friend Harry Anslinger, and from now on he kept a special music catalogue, in which he registered every case of "drug-mention" however banal this mention may have been. He monopolized all the information he was collecting, and used his catalogue to label "trend-musicians" as public enemies. Henceforth music was devided into two simple catagories: "good" in other words ineffectual and harmless to the status quo, or "youth depraving". This mechanism has remained with us to this very day. The music industry, which was gaining importance in the social context by the minute, was caught in a fix, a weh it has never been quite able to disentangle itself from: the industry earns millions by selling so called under ground music, yet it has to pretend to distance itself from this music in the face of the establishment - take a look at the street rap situation today. Furthermore new musical styles have arrived hand in hand with new drugs - Rock'n'Roll with amnphetamines, Psychedelic with LSD, and Techno/Trance with Ecstasy - despite claims to the opposite, the music and the drugs are sold as one ideological package. lf we study the history of the innovative musical club scene, we see that the important pre-requisites of the party-star have always been similar: extroversion, extravagance, and of course, the ability to stay awake for a long time. Dancing is naturally the key to most post-pubescent fashions and rituals; coupled with the right clothes and the right drugs, these are the codes, the primary factors for "club success". Speed is a good example of how little the times have changed. After this German quality product had been put to good use in both world wars, every American truck driver knew it's benefits. Country, Rock'n'Roll, and later Punk would hardly have contained and exuded such energy without amphetamines. In the London of the sixties Mods regulary celebrated 3 days raves, only pausing to swap location for the next allnighter. Proprieters of hardcore clubs padded the walls and spread pillows for exhausted speed freaks, they didn't however find it necessary to proclaim these as "Chill-Outs" - indeed if anyone deserves the copyright for chill-outs, it ought to be the original opium dens. The bouncers of those London Mod clubs were said to confiscate the drugs at the entrance, then sell them later on in the evening for their own financial gain - same procedure as everywhere, everytime. Over the years, the media needed more exclusive material; there was competition as to who could get closest to the biggest stars, and the stars competed as to who was the most way-out. lf they were real "heroes", they'd only step in front of the camera when coked up to the eyeballs, they destroyed hotel rooms and did the same to groupies (and made sure that public knew all about it). Soon enough this "way-out-attitude" mutated to big business, certified "depraved lunatics" like Keith Richards and Jimi Hendrix - who went on tour complete with personal Acid taster - came to be millionaires, who publically lived the lifestyles the normals would love to have lived. Drugs kept the long tours on the road, and were soon seen as the number one internal currency of the business. Today as much as ever, it's not sufficient to bribe journalists or radio DJs with a wedge of money - for best results a little first class powder should always be included. Parallel to the activites of the Mods in England, Andy Warhol's Factory in New York attained sub-cultural fame towards the close of the sixties. In this scene (as in equivalent scenes nowadays) a group of poets, models, musicians, artists, groupies, slaves and losers assembled around their guru and vied for attention. Every attempt had to be made to appear as flipped or way-out as possible in order not to be overlooked by the master. It was in this enviroment that the band Velvet Underground was formed, they performed with simultaneous multi-media shows made up of dancers, slide shows, movies and light shows. (Reminds one a little of a Techno Rave doesn't it?) Lou Reed, head of the Velvets later iilustrated the content of his songs during solo performances by jacking up un stage, while singing his hits "Heroin" and "Waiting for my man". Meanwhile, on the west coast of America, Ken Kesey, who had written "One flew over the cuckoo's nest" in 1960, was forming his "Merry Pranksters". Together they initiated the Acid Tests, the Be-Ins and the Happenings. lt was in these events that the first rock festivals had their roots. Participants dressed as crazily as possible, paid one dollar and took as much LSD as they could. Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead) has described these events like this: Acid Tests were like this: there were thousands of people, all in one place, all hopelessiy stoned and nobody was afraid of anybody else. After these initial happenings a Trip Festival took place in San Francisco every week. The Greatful Dead played almost every time, and each time they arrived stoned, played stoned and their fans - the so-called "Dead Heads" - were just as stoned. The innovative aspect of the Dead's music was that their sound was created specially for the audience's stoned state, and even today, when they play live, the Greatful Dead integrate a special "Space Phase". This lasts about 40 minutes and serves the purpose of sending the acid-heads in the audience on a distant trip. Insiders claim that the essential Spirit of the movement actually died in 1967 in a sea of tourists, weekend hippies, gangsters, bad police measures and bad trips. The huge Woodstock Festival, by comparison, was but a pale imitation, a purely commercial enterprise - complete with movie and live record. It's a little like comparing the Cologne/Dortmund Mayday Rave to the first illegal raves in winding cellars or industrial complexes. The not wholly unproductive hippie movement didn't only express itself musically, it also brought forth many other elements which later caught on. To name but a few: anti-nuclear, ecological, alternative medecine, revivals of indian culture, all these phenomenas are rooted in the hippie movement. Developments in the fields of computers and video, cyberspace and multimedia were likewise prompted and promoted by this movement. When they first appeared most of these innovative ideas were rediculed, only to become acceptable over the years, and to be welcomed into the mainstream of contemporary beliefs. Today members of yesterday's depraved youth, like Frank Zappa and Lou Reed are "offi cial ambassadors of culture" and welcome conversationalists among some heads of state around the world. John Lennon, who during his Hamburg days threw steak knives into the audience while speeding, was later invited for tea with the british Queen, and Liverpool now bousts a monument to the Fab Four. This little review should serve to illustrate that there always have been two kinds of people: firstly those who arrange themselves with the system, who go the comfortable way of the mainstream. These are the people who due to their hopeless sersvility and uncritical stupidity have always facilitated collective crimes like the Third Reich and the Stasi quagmire. The other sort of person has always sought the truth and has consequentially always sought to express what he has discovered, despite severe repression and defamation. It is this second sort of person who has always served progress on this planet. Should he ever have existed, I believe that the "long-haired-communist-hippie" called Jesus Christ definitely belonged to the second catagory, irrespective of what terrible crimes have been committed in his name since his death. In fact it is precisely christianisation that is to blame for the frustration of youth throughout history, and which has always attracted them to that eternal trinity of Sex and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll; or Wine, Women and Song; or Love, Peace and Ecstasy.There are certain fundamental energies and desires which are impossible to negate from above - no matter how strict the laws. In every culture there have been events that are compareable to todays raves. We can only hope, that in the future there will always be people who are blessed with the wisdom to steer the underlying desires within cultivated parametres. As an aside, traditionally, the medieval "Walpurgis Night" was celebrated on 1. May, just like the biggest German Rave nowadays. However it may be worth noting, that anybody arrested in the course of a raid on the Walpurgis night festivities didn't end up in jail, he or she found themselves bound to a burning stake instead. The German gutter press hasn't missed todays similarities to ancient mind expanding practices either, a recent headline warned of an impending "flood of natural drugs". Well, it's no secret that there are a lot of drugs out there in the meadows and woods, they're free of charge, and no laws can prevent them being used. Anyway, a quick look at the situation in the ex-Soviet Union suffices to illustrate that even in a controlled enviroment where no illegal drugs are available, a society can ruin itself very efficiently with alcohol alone. Can anybody remember the biggest MDMA coup of all time? A few months ago 30 million tabs were discovered at Frankfurt Airport. Apparently they originated from an Estonian Chemical factory. Something is odd here though; this item flared up in the news for a day or two, and was then dropped like a hot potato - was it maybe the backround story that was too hot? Or take for example the Imhausen case: two "honourable" employees of that firm produced and sold about 12 million tabs in 1988. They were caught and received fines between only 3 and 9 thousand Marks - as "warnings"! Compared to this judgement, the hullabaloo over objects found "bearing traces of cocaine" in the disco "M" in Mainz seems totally disproportionate. Last but not least. We're neither promoting drugs - illegal or not, nor do we wish to prompt anybody to use them. lf you don't take drugs, don't take any in future, unless a doctor tells you to do so expressly. Drugs don't keep what they promise. They do provide more energy for a limited period of time, however this energy is borrowed from the body's own reserves - and these reserves are limited. lf drugs are used to mentally "shut down", they'll display their most malevolent side, for that is not what they ought to be used for. You have to be aware, that if you use drugs, what you're really doing is throwing yourself up in the air like a stone, and when you hit the ground again, impact can be very hard and painful - remember the old pilot's saying: "they always come down again...". Don't let yourself be blinded by idols and peers, for despite what they would have us believe, they don't always have their drug habit under control. In public they go out of their way to display the benfits of their drug usage, they don't however allow us to see them in the desperate condition in which they doubtlessly find themselves at times. Much of what is paraded in the realms of "great drug experiences" is all too often either very decorated boasting or else a bunch of lies. The House of God, your body was made to last you for the duration of your life, so don't burn up too early. You will certainly need your body for a long time yet. Be alert to the requirements of your friends, if you sense that something's going wrong, step in and try to help. In short, don't just share the good times when it comes to taking drugs. Should you get busted, stay calm and make sure you get yourself a good lawyer, especially one who has experience in this field. lf you neglect this advice, things could go badly wrong. In any case it's absolutely no use to make any pathetic confessions and to grass on your friends, even if the cops promise you an amnesty. That's one of their oldest and most devious tricks, and the more you admit to, the more the prosecutor will be able to punish you for. We are not advising anybody to break any laws, however we do see the present legal situation on drugs as unfair and evil in theory as in practice. The time for a fundamental reform has come, and we believe this reform will take place in the near future. Even if you are guilty of covering the needs of a whole disco, you're still only a little fish, who at the most will be misused for disgusting propoganda, which, in turn merely serves to divert attention and prevent the real shit from hitting the fan.