The Chicago DJ adds to the voices speaking out against targeting drug use in the dance music scene.

EDM DJ Kaskade has released a statement in response to an article in the Los Angeles Times that suggests Hard Festival’s Day of the Dead event was cancelled this year due to three drug-related deaths that occurred at Hard Festival in California’s San Bernardino County over the summer.

Kaskade has taken umbrage with the fact that the Times mentions there have 25 confirmed drug-related deaths at electronic music festivals since 2006:

“As a lover of dance music, a friend, a brother, a son, a husband, and a father, even ONE death strikes me down. But let’s not pretend this is an isolated problem, something unique to dance music culture. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, every day in America 27 (TWENTY-SEVEN!) people die as a result of drunk driving crashes. That’s more than one person, per hour, every single day.”

The article in question does make reference to a recent city panel that called into question the hospitalization of “some concert-goers” (no number was listed, but it confirmed one person was put in intensive care) for suffering seizures at a May 7 Kaskade concert at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The article also notes: “Seizures can be caused by drugs taken at raves.” It does not mention that there is also stage lighting at raves that can effectively trigger seizures, as well.

Kaskade continues: “I’m happy to tackle substance abuse. I’m happy to use my influence to encourage people to be responsible, to stay alive. But this is a world-wide problem, something that is not even close to being unique to dance music. Part of the problem is people trying to simple-size it. Raves = drugs. So close them down.” But city commissioners are doing just that and wrote in a statement about events at the LA Convention Center that it “is not interested in hosting high risk concerts that would create a public safety risk”.

Kaskade disagrees: “Not going to work, and we all know it. Time to devote your column inches to some real stories. The war on drugs is a farce. There are better answers than regurgitating the same alarmist solutions that have never worked, which will NEVER work. Try this on: education, harm reduction and legalization.”

Read his full statement here.