Why I’m Teaching My Children to “Just Say Know”

By Melissa Windle Georgia DanceSafe Chapter Head I was in elementary school when Nancy Reagan first told kids to "Just Say No". In between our afternoon cartoons, my friends and I saw Public Service Announcements that showed us what our brains would look like on drugs.  By high school, some of the kids in my school had been daring to just say no for over a decade. We were going to pep-rallies encouraging us to abstain from drug use, but many students were regularly using alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, psychedelics and/or MDMA. It didn't matter what the curriculum taught about the virtues...

August 30, 2017Read more...

08/08/2017 #TestItTuesday Alert: Always Check Your Cocaine

Let’s be honest, it is vital to test any substance you consume--or smoke, or snort, or inject, or boof. But for today’s #TestItTuesday alert, we stress the importance of testing cocaine, especially with the prevalence of fentanyl on the east coast black market. In June of this year, the New York City Health Department announced that it had seen a sharp increase in fatal overdoses involving a combination of fentanyl and cocaine over the last year, and had warned thousands of city health providers to educate any patients who use cocaine casually. To test a substance that is allegedly cocaine, we...

August 16, 2017Read more...

Stop Calling Cannabis a “Gateway Drug”

Even though a majority of Americans support legal cannabis use, marijuana opponents are still pushing the rhetoric that cannabis is a “gateway drug,” meaning that its use leads to experimentation with, and potentially abuse of, “harder" and riskier drugs such as heroin or methamphetamine. But even the National Institute on Drug Abuse (or “NIDA”), states that “the  majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, "harder" substances.” A closer look reveals what’s keeping the gateway myth alive --for now, at least. When analyzing what creates a “gateway” to riskier drug use, there are a number...

August 16, 2017Read more...

DanceSafe Relaunches Visionaries Program

As of today, DanceSafe has relaunched its Visionaries Program with new incentives and more flexible ways to participate. DanceSafe Visionaries are the official support and promotion team of DanceSafe. Participants are harm reduction enthusiasts who use their voices within their online networks to break down the stigma faced by people in the electronic music and nightlife communities. DanceSafe Visionaries educate their peers and spread the DanceSafe message by sharing information and content on their social media pages and other internet platforms such as Reddit, Tumblr, and personal blogs. The Visionaries Program offers participants a flexible way to get involved with DanceSafe. Each...

July 24, 2017Read more...

July 18th #TestItTuesday Alert: Yaba being marketed as ecstasy in US and Canada

#TestItTuesday Alert! DanceSafe has reports that Yaba has made its way back to the U.S. and Canada after a long hiatus in these domestic markets. Yaba is a brand of small red methamphetamine pill, which is sometimes (but not always) marked with the code WY. Produced in huge quantities in Asia and sold there as methamphetamine, the small tablets are being marketed and sold as ecstasy pills along the U.S./Canada border.   An average dose of a Yaba tablet is about 23mg of methamphetamine with a total pill weight of under 100mg which is very small for a tablet that is being...

July 18, 2017Read more...

How to Stay Safe This 710

“Dabs” are concentrated doses of cannabis that are made by extracting THC and other cannabinoids from the cannabis plant. This is done using 1) a solvent such as butane, carbon dioxide, water, ethanol, etc., resulting in products such as wax, shatter, budder, or live resin, or 2) solventless methods such as heating and cooling, resulting in products such as rosin. According to analyses revealed in a study conducted by Mallory Loflin and Dr. Mitch Earleywine, the use of “dabs” does not create more problems or accidents than the use of flower cannabis. This being said, the significantly increased concentration of cannabinoids...

July 10, 2017Read more...

EARLY ALERT: Potential K Analogue Sold as Ketamine at Tipper & Friends Nocturnal Edition

ATTN: Tipper & Friends Patrons We have just been notified that there may be a ketamine analogue being sold as ketamine onsite. While we are not providing testing, we’ve been hearing reports of said substance not testing as expected and not having the same effect (wearing off quickly, adverse medical incidents, etc.). Make sure to always test before you ingest and if you or your friends are in need of medical assistance, do not hesitate to act! Medical can be found at the top of the amphitheater just outside the gate.   Need a drug checking kit? Check out our store!    

May 19, 2017Read more...

May 2nd #TestItTuesday Alert: MDMA Therapy and Black Markets

It's #TestItTuesday! The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has been moving quickly on making MDMA into an FDA-approved medication, and the amount of positive press they are getting is phenomenal. When outlets as diverse as military blogs, Time magazine and now Fortune are covering this research, you know you've really made some waves. But with the increased public understanding of the therapeutic potential of MDMA comes an increased risk of people trying to access these substances via the black market. While it's become increasingly clear that pharmaceutically produced MDMA in a clinical setting has a relatively low risk, extrapolating from that...

May 2, 2017Read more...

Music is the Drug: The Sober Festival Experience

First, let me put this out there: this piece isn’t intended to be pro-sobriety or pro-drugs. I am proudly pro-choice in this matter. I believe each of us is entitled to make our own decisions and learn along the way—it’s your life and your journey! That being said, I will always advocate for everyone to be well-informed, so you can make those choices to the best of your ability. Maybe that means being savvy and taking those tabs you brought to the DanceSafe tent for testing. Maybe that means deciding you don’t want the extra bump or dose that everyone else...

April 26, 2017Read more...

April 18th #TestItTuesday Alert: Celebrate Safer This Bicycle Day

It's #TestItTuesday! Today, we are discussing LSD and drug checking in honor of Bicycle Day tomorrow and also offering (for this week only) 10% off anything in our store, including test kits, using the coupon code thanksdoc! On April 19, 1943, Dr. Albert Hofmann became the first person to intentionally ingest LSD. After consuming 250 micrograms (what he believed would be a threshold dose, but is actually nearly 3 times the amount of most modern LSD blotters), he began to experience a deeply altered state. Because the use of motor vehicles was restricted during the war, him and his assistant rode...

April 18, 2017Read more...