In late May, I was immersed in conversation with a group of friends at a Ridgewood rave when the hard techno that had been steadily hammering throughout the night stopped. Confused murmurs filled the vast warehouse, which was suddenly marked by an unnerving silence. Technical difficulties, those around us assumed. Awkward, staggered clapping echoed throughout the venue as a few optimistic clubbers shouted "No music!" Less hopeful attendees exited in waves, to presumably wait for a cab home or devise a plan for an impromptu after hours. As it became clear that the party would not return, a friend that I had been briefly separated from that night appeared, wearing a grim look on their face. "Someone just overdosed," they told me, before they went on to describe their wild dash to find another friend who regularly carries naloxone, an opioid reversal drug more commonly known as Narcan.

Stories like this have permeated my conversations in the last few months as widely spread Instagram posts alerting people to fentanyl's increasing presence in Brooklyn's drug supply entered my feeds, and second-hand accounts of people attending parties where an overdose occurred grew more commonplace. The synthetic opioid drug cannot be detected by taste, color or appearance, making it highly lethal since it is also around 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin. Though the nightlife community's initial concern was fentanyl-laced cocaine, the synthetic opioid has appeared with increasing frequency in ketamine, MDMA and counterfeit pills like Oxycontin, Vicodin and Xanax. After a challenging year-and-a-half away, an unfortunate message had besieged the Brooklyn dance music scene, which had just vaulted into a promising new era of New York nightlife: using any white powders recreationally presented a grave risk.

More than half of all overdose deaths in New York City involve fentanyl. Effective at extremely low doses and much cheaper to produce than similar drugs like heroin and morphine, fentanyl has become a go-to option for suppliers interested in making a large profit. The drug has overwhelmed the black market for opioids since 2015, leading to a surge in the amount of accidental overdose deaths in the area. The rate of overdoses in the city spiked even further when the pandemic hit the city, due to a lethal combination of users taking drugs in isolation—away from peers to monitor them or treatment facilities where they can be offered support—and travel restrictions inflating narcotic costs. In just the first half of 2020, overdoses, the majority of which were fentanyl-related, increased by 25 percent. In April, eight percent of cocaine tested by the NYPD tested positive for fentanyl.

Harm reduction activists have pressed harder for those taking white powders to use fentanyl test strips, a completely legal tool that can be used to detect fentanyl in just over five minutes. Naloxone, an opioid antagonist which works by attaching to opioid receptors, effectively reversing and blocking the effects of opioids, has also become more important than ever in combating the fentanyl crisis. The non-addictive drug comes in two forms: as an injectable that is standardly administered by a medical professional and is injected into muscle, under the skin or into the vein, and as a prepackaged nasal spray that most people purchase as Narcan. Requiring no assembly or training, the medicine is simply sprayed into one nostril while the overdosing person remains supine.

Fentanyl's rising presence in New York's drug supply has led some party organizers, clubs and harm reduction advocates scrambling to inform clubbers about the various harm reduction resources and tools available. In early September, harm reduction organization DanceSafe posted a tweet that has now racked up over 3,000 likes and 1,000 retweets: "Hi. It's DanceSafe. Could you please test your drugs? The market is extremely scary right now, and we are worried for your safety. We love you." While similar discussions about drug safety are steadily more visible online, active efforts to keep the nightlife community safe have yet to be completely embraced across the entire New York dance music scene, or at least not publicly.

As the United States remains in the crosshairs of the war on drugs, any promoter or venue owner's fear of openly endorsing harm reduction measures is understandable. These concerns can be traced all the way back to 2003, when then-Delaware Senator Joe Biden proposed the Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act (RAVE Act). The aim of the policy was to make it easier for prosecutors to fine and incarcerate venue owners, rave promoters and property owners for failing to prevent drug use on their property. While the act didn't make it through Congress, it did pave the way for a similar bill, the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act of 2003 (IDAP Act), to be passed as a rider within the PROTECT Act. Under this federal law, someone throwing an event during which patrons are using or selling drugs could face fines up to $250,000 and 20 years in jail. The law was an extension of another anti-drug legislation authored by Biden, the "crack house" statute, which was passed as part of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 to penalize business owners who allowed drug use on their properties during the crack cocaine epidemic. For nearly two decades, the combined laws have deterred nightlife workers from implementing harm reduction services as basic as supplying free water in their spaces.

But Rachel Clark, DanceSafe's programs and communications coordinator, explains that the IDAP Act might not be as opposed to harm reduction as previously thought. "To my knowledge, no one has actually been convicted under the RAVE Act of anything," she says.

She also mentions the work of harm reduction reform advocate Deirdre Goldsmith, who has been campaigning to amend the IDAP act since 2014, a year after her daughter died of an MDMA overdose at an electronic music concert. In 2016, Virginia senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions, on behalf of Goldsmith, to clarify if the act outlaws the institution of harm reduction safety measures at music festivals and concert venues. Section chief at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Sean Mitchell wrote back in 2018, stating, "Our review of the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, codified at 21 U.S.C §856, did not identify any provision of the Act that would discourage law-abiding venue owners from instituting safety measures for its patrons, including the provision of water."

"So this," Clark notes, "literally says harm reduction is legal." And in the past decade or so, New York State has enacted some relatively liberal laws that work to combat the fentanyl crisis. On April 1st, 2006, a law took effect that allowed non-medical laypeople to administer naloxone to a person experiencing an overdose. Years later, the 911 Good Samaritan Law went into effect on September 18th, 2011, allowing someone experiencing an overdose to call 911 without fear of an arrest as long as they're carrying fewer than eight ounces of substances.

Dance floor at Coloring Lessons

Founded in 1999, DanceSafe has a volunteer-run New York chapter that relaunched in 2013 to offer all manner of harm reduction supplies and education materials at local events. I saw this in action at a New Year's Eve rave in a Chinatown dim-sum restaurant thrown by Discakes, an eccentric queer party centering Black and Brown people, last year. Throughout the night, DanceSafe members distributed free fentanyl testing strips, Narcan and pamphlets containing harm reduction tips. Party monitors, recognizable by the three yellow and black side release buckle straps wrapped across their chests, were also available to offer assistance in the event of a crisis.

But there's a growing consensus across the nightlife community that more robust preventative measures need to be taken to protect the nightlife community, and many believe it starts with venues and promoters being better prepared. Adding another layer of urgency to the issue, opioids, once deemed a white, middle-class issue, have significantly impacted marginalized communities in New York City in recent years. In 2018, the Bronx, a borough that is predominantly Black and Latinx, saw the highest rate of opioid incidents in the city. That same year, opioid burden events surged among Latinx people (273.1 per 100,000) and Black people (270.4 per 100,000).

At a recent New York Nightlife Town Hall hosted at Nowadays, New York DJ Miss Parker summed up the scene's concerns: "You are allowing people to come into your space to host a party, but are you really looking out for them?"

Just months before the pandemic shuttered venues across New York, the DJ, producer and harm reductionist Lauren Flax founded Last Night A Deejay Saved My Life, an initiative that began as an endeavour to supply all DJs in New York with Narcan so that in the event of an emergency, anyone in need of assistance could simply head to the DJ booth for help. "But my idea, obviously in thinking about it more, I was like, that's a pretty small group of people," she now reflects. Flax decided to expand her initial concept to include venue staff members and patrons, hosting her first training at Greenpoint's The Lot Radio to a group of 20 people, a crowd that grew to the size of 100 by the time she moved the training to the Ridgewood club Nowadays in early 2020.

Anyone can purchase and administer Narcan. It has no effect on alcohol or other drugs, meaning if a person isn't overdosing, using the medication in the wrong circumstance wouldn't cause unnecessary harm. However, while it is accessible regardless of age, prescription or insurance status at New York pharmacies, the medicine isn't cheap. A Narcan kit including two doses can cost up to $140 at the pharmacy. One way to bypass this high cost, though, is by attending a training session where one can receive a card that notes they've been trained, allowing them to receive Narcan free-of-cost from select New York pharmacies for the rest of their life. This way, Flax explains, "if they have to use it, then they don't have to come back to us."

Left: Lauren Flax

This summer, recent pressure on promoters and DJs to cultivate safer environments for their guests has become apparent across parties large and small. In the middle of July, a colleague invited me to a Bushwick housewarming that opened with a Narcan training led by their roommate. Later that night, I danced at the queer underground techno party Unter, a beloved afterhours event that typically sprawls from 11 PM to hours after sunrise. For this edition, an attractive lineup—which included Physical Therapy, Volvox and Ron Like Hell—coaxed hundreds of revellers to a Bed Stuy nightclub. The event promo boasted a professional EMT medic on site, as well as Narcan kits and fentanyl testing strips available behind the bars of the multi-room venue. "You're at the center of everything we do," the event description read. "That's why we're committed to continuously raising the bar to keep you safe with science-backed protocols led by our expert health partners and powered by innovation." On September 11th, house duo musclecars shared a photo on Instagram of The Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Use Prevention, Care, and Treatment's fentanyl test strips they provide at their monthly Coloring Lessons party. They're both also Narcan trained and keep a Narcan kit behind the DJ booth at every edition. "All things considered… it's kind of the bare minimum," they tell me. "But we're working on other partnerships to be able to ensure safety across the board."

The harm reduction measures that work for one party, however, might not for an established dance music venue. Hiring an EMT medic for an hours-long event can cost a venue hundreds of dollars per night, and Mohawk, a longtime member of DanceSafe's New York Chapter, explains that many spaces are too afraid of being shut down to even utter the words "test strips" and "Narcan" in their party flyers. "There's a lot of room for more harm reduction to be introduced into these spaces, but there's this fear of being penalized, prosecuted, fined or shut down if they do this in New York."

"I've been in a number of spaces where some people were very, very hesitant about even introducing harm reduction services [into their space] because they thought it was going to attract attention because there was already attention on them for other things," they add.

Yet, I hear the narrative around harm reduction shifting away from hesitation and toward advocacy when speaking to the city's Office Of Nightlife (ONL), an enterprise founded in 2017 to function as a liaison between the local government and the nightlife industry. "Historically, there have been a lot of repercussions and not a lot of attention to the need for [overdose] prevention and harm reduction measures," ONL's Senior Executive Director Ariel Palitz tells me. "So I think in large part that was why the Office of Nightlife was created."

In June, the ONL released a 160-page report that listed harm reduction as a priority initiative for the office. One of the largest demonstrations of this was in 2019, when ONL partnered with the Department Of Health to deliver naloxone and educational materials to bars across North Brooklyn. The office is currently working on bringing their harm reduction campaign to the attention of local authorities by speaking directly to commanding officers, patrol officers and dispatchers in quarterly nightlife meetings with the New York Police Department. The office's next major project is to normalize the use of fentanyl testing strips in event spaces through a fentanyl test strip program which will be detailed during a webinar next month. The goal is to invite the police department, operators and promoters to the event so that authorities and nightlife participants can "learn and understand this together."

Dance floor at Coloring Lessons

"Fentanyl test strips are not in and of themselves illegal, and are seen as a public health tool that is supported by the Department Of Health," Palitz explains. "And you know, venues should be encouraged to distribute them if they feel comfortable doing so."

My conversation with the New York State Department of Health confirms this sentiment. The Department has been actively promoting the distribution of fentanyl testing strips and working to make an assortment of harm reduction supplies more readily available, particularly for use at events. In an email sent to me, they also note the importance of training staff in harm reduction practices: "We encourage nightlife venues to train their staff to respond to overdoses," they write. "Given the presence of fentanyl in the drug supply," they continue, "it is important that staff working in nightlife venues are knowledgeable about and trained in overdose prevention measures, such as naloxone administration, and have naloxone on hand."

Of course, given the country's historic criminalization of drug use, it might be a while until the local government can completely regain the trust of the city's nightlife workers. For venue owners that remain hesitant but are interested in introducing harm reduction into their spaces, Clark recommends being prepared to defend yourself in the event that you're approached by the authorities. "The most important thing for any promoter or venue owner that's throwing a party and has harm reduction supplies, is that you need to know what to say," she says.

"A really good idea, I think, is to have statistics on hand, including even a laminated binder that you can keep behind the bar," she continues. "So if anyone gives you shit, you can be like, 'Here. Statistically this is what's happening. Here is how dangerous this is. It would be a much bigger liability for me to risk someone snorting cocaine without my knowledge and dying in my venue.' There isn't that much of a way to argue that."