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About Us

DanceSafe NYC is the New York City chapter of the national, non-profit, harm reduction organization DanceSafe (http://www.dancesafe.org). We are dedicated to promoting health and safety in NYC's rave and nightclub community.

Our basic activity involves staffing booths at parties where we distribute educational literature and answer questions about t=he safer use of alcohol, ecstasy and other drugs. We also provide ecstasy adulterant screening in the form of a laboratory pill analysis program, as well as onsite pill testing which prevents medical emergencies by helping ecstasy users avoid potentially dangerous adulterants sometimes found in street "ecstasy" tablets.

DanceSafe has two fundamental operating principles: harm reduction and popular education. Combining these two principles enables us to create successful, peer-based educational programs to reduce drug abuse and empower young people to make healthy, informed lifestyle choices.

What is Harm Reduction?

In its barest sense, harm reduction is a pragmatic approach to dealing with societal drug use. It begins with the observation that despite all our efforts as a society to stop the use of illicit drugs, people are using them anyway, and it seems unlikely this situation is going to change soon. This necessitates a practical response to reduce the harm that is taking place right now. And this response is called, appropriately enough, harm reduction.
 
What about abstention?
While abstention is the only way to avoid all the harms associated with drug use, harm reduction programs provide non-abstentionist health and safety information under the recognition that many people are going to choose to experiment with drugs despite all the risks involved. Harm reduction information and services help people use as safely as possible as long as they continue to use.

There is no such thing as "safe" drug use.
No drug use is entirely safe. All drug use contains inherent risks. Most people who choose to experiment with drugs realize there are risks involved, but they often do not know what all those risks are. DanceSafe provides truthful, non-biased information on the risks of using specific drugs, as well as ways to reduce those risks if one chooses to experiment.

Shouldn't we try to scare teenagers away
from experimenting with drugs?
This is a common approach that has never worked. In fact, it often has the opposite effect. Individuals and organizations who exaggerate or lie about the dangers of drugs end up losing the trust of young people, who may then disbelieve all warnings about the risks of drug use. The claim that marijuana is as addictive as heroin, for example, or that ecstasy overdoses are as common as heroin overdoses, are simply not confirmed by young people's direct experiences. Once they discover (as they are bound to) that marijuana is hardly addictive, and that overdosing on ecstasy is extraordinarily rare, they may think that similar claims about the risks of heroin are also lies. Truthful drug education is much more effective in reducing the use and abuse of drugs among teens than scare tactics.		  
Isn't it better to simply tell people not
to use drugs?
"Just say no" messages work well for very young children. However, they do not help the large percentage of teenagers and young adults who, despite the risks involved, choose to experiment with drugs. Simplistic slogans advocating abstention simply do not achieve their intended effect.

What is Popular Education?

Popular education is an educational philosophy developed in Brazil by Paulo Freire. As opposed to more traditional educational models that see the teacher as a large container full of knowledge and the students as empty containers that need filling, popular education sees learning as a creative process that transforms everyone, teachers and students alike. Freire's goal through his educational practice was to increase his students' ability to positively influence the world around them. As DanceSafe volunteers our goal is to increase the ability of our peers to positively influence their own health and safety, by providing the tools and information needed to make informed decisions.