The death of Sasha Rodriguez, the 15-year-old girl who died of an apparent drug overdose after attending the Electric Daisy Carnival at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, has galvanized public concern about raves — music and dance events that, for many partygoers, often involve use of the drug ecstasy.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, 3rd District, has led the effort to rethink policies regarding raves. On Tuesday, the County Board of Supervisors passed a Yaroslavsky motion to create a task force to investigate and “enhance rave safety”, as well as educate the public about the dangers of the events.

“The task force, led by the Public Health Department, will inform the public about these rave concerts — what’s involved, what drugs of choice are at these events, and what the dangers and risks are,” Yaroslavsky said.  “Ecstasy and related drugs pose a serious threat to the health and life of people who take them. People need to know that the drugs they’re taking can kill them.”

In addition, Yaroslavsky, who is a member of the Coliseum Commission, the board that runs the publicly-owned venue, called for a moratorium on booking raves until a special meeting is held on July 16, when the commission will discuss the issue.

“The Coliseum Commission needs to understand what happened at the last concert, and what changes are necessary in contracts with promoters,” Yaroslavsky said. “We’re considering all of our options, and one of the options is not to have these events anymore.”

The 14th annual Electric Daisy Carnival was the biggest event of its kind that the Coliseum has hosted, with more than 100,000 attendees. It also yielded the most casualties, however. In addition to Rodriguez’s death, 120 other partygoers were hospitalized, mostly for drug and alcohol overdoses, and YouTube videos have circulated showing people crushed against fences under personnel.

Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Pat Gannon said the size of the event caused many of the problems. Though 250 LAPD officers were outside of the event each night, plus 75 officers inside the event, along with several hundred private security guards, Gannon said he did not have enough officers.

“I’ve worked on raves in the past, and this was the largest one I’ve been associated with,” Gannon said. “At the time, I thought we were prepared. But as the event grows in size, it grows in complexity. If you go from dealing with ten thousand people to dealing with one-hundred thousand people, that’s a big jump. Keeping participants safe has become problematic, both outside the event with the gatecrashers, and inside with the sale of narcotics. Whenever you have to hire private ambulances on standby to cart people off, you have to take a serious look at that.”

Concern about safety at raves has existed for months. A rave at the Coliseum on New Year’s Eve resulted in one death and at least 18 drug overdoses. Last year, the Coliseum Commission shortened the hours for music events from a 4:00am closing time to a 2:00am shutdown. As Gannon mentioned, promoters of the Electric Daisy Carnival also hired ambulances to be on standby outside the event, while several local hospitals brought in extra emergency room staff.

In addition, following the New Year’s Eve rave, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report about the use of ecstasy at that event. Cathy Chidester, director of Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services (EMS), said she had planned to discuss the report’s findings at the next meeting of the EMS commission, which had been scheduled for soon after the Electric Daisy Carnival.

Chidester said raves put extra stress on an already “very fragile” EMS system. During the Electric Daisy Carnival, White Memorial Medical Center became overwhelmed, and ambulances had to be diverted to other hospitals.

“We already have concerns about patient waiting times, with only seventy-three hospitals receiving 911 calls from ten million people,” Chidester said. “If someone has a heart attack, or a stroke, or a car accident, there may be a delay before they get seen or treated, because hospital staff is dealing with someone from the rave party. These parties have an overall negative impact on the EMS system.”

Yaroslavsky said that the Coliseum Commission had questioned leasing the venue to promoters for raves in the past. In the future, he said, if these events continue, it will have to be under decidedly different conditions.

“One attraction of these events was that they go on in the middle of the night, drugs flow freely, and apparently everyone understands that,” Yaroslavsky said. “Something has to be done now, because it’s a public safety issue, it’s a public venue, and people have a right to expect that they’re not walking into a drug fest. I’m a not a prude on these things, but these drugs are dangerous and people have died. If these events are going to continue, it’ll have to be under fundamentally different terms and conditions. Short of banning this art form completely, we’re trying to find a middle ground where people could be protected and the art form could be exhibited, but obviously it’s not getting any better.”