Strangers at a Rave

by The College Student
California USA

I have a group of college friends who go to “raves” about once a month. Raves, if you are not familiar with them, are huge all-night parties, often held in abandoned warehouses. Their attendees are known for taking psychedelic drugs — particularly the drug “Ecstasy” (MDMA). Because of the illegal drugs used at raves, most people do not consider ravers a desirable segment of society, even though not all ravers use drugs.

Recently, four of my friends attended a rave two hours’ drive away. While there, they met a group of three high school girls. The girls had been driven to the rave by two guys they hardly knew — and the guys had disappeared just after arriving. The girls and my friends were “rolling” on Ecstasy.

Around 5:00 a.m. the party was winding down. “Matt” was the designated driver for my friends, having taken the drug earlier to be sober in time to drive home. He wanted to leave. However, the three girls were frantic. They’d tracked down the two guys who had driven them there and neither guy was even slightly fit to drive. Both were completely incoherent and could hardly walk.

Only one girl had a driver’s license, but she was still rolling and in no shape to drive. They decided that my friend “Dan” would drive the second car, with the boys and two girls as passengers, and one girl in Matt’s car.

The drive home turned into a nightmare. One of the two drugged boys wet himself, and the other soiled himself. Then one began projectile vomiting all over the car. Their condition was extremely bad, and Dan felt that they needed medical attention. After dropping the girls at home, my friends conferred about the guys.

There was risk in accompanying the boys to the hospital. What if the doctors called the police? Emergency medical personnel are all too familiar with these scenarios — they wouldn’t be fooled. With the boys unimproved, my friends decided it was more important to take them to the emergency room.

They waited at the hospital from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., when a doctor pronounced the boys not likely to die. My four friends then drove the boys and their car home.

It would have been easy for my friends to dismiss the boys and the high school girls that night — because they’d caused their own problems, or because they had only met them a few hours before. In using “recreational” drugs, my friends may show lack of judgment and disregard the damage done to their bodies, but, when given a choice, none of them considered leaving behind people in serious trouble. They spent hours and took a risk to make sure that all five strangers made it to safety that night. I only hope that if I ever have to choose between the safety of others and my own convenience that I make the same choice.