Visions Adolescent Treatment Centers Sounds the Alarm on Electric Daisy Carnival in Wake of Teen's Death

Visions Adolescent Treatment Centers Sounds the Alarm on Electric Daisy Carnival in Wake of Teen's Death

Addiction Treatment Experts at Visions officially urge Las Vegas officials to cancel future editions of the event

LAS VEGAS, June 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- For years, the highly-accredited addiction treatment experts at Visions, a leading adolescent treatment center in Malibu, Calif. with an outpatient facility and sober high school in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, have warned parents of the dangers of the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), the world's largest electronic music festival outside of Europe, which has become notorious for teen drug use. Formerly held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum until 2010, when the death of a 15-year-old attendee caused L.A. city officials to finally kick out promoter Insomniac, Inc., EDC is now a touring festival, with the next edition of the event scheduled for June 24-25 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In light of the recent death of a 19-year-old male at an EDC event in Dallas on June 19 of this year, John D. Lieberman, Director of Operations at Visions Adolescent Treatment Centers, has issued an official statement urging Las Vegas officials, including Mayor Oscar Goodman, to cancel the upcoming and all future Las Vegas installments of EDC. His statement is below and may be quoted in full or in part to meet editorial needs.

"I've been working in the addiction treatment field for 26 years. From the perspective of taking care of addicted teenagers, nothing scares me more than the weekend on which the EDC occurs each year. As a father of two daughters and a grandfather I would not want my children to attend this event.

Sunday's death of a 19-year-old at the EDC event in Dallas tells us conclusively that this is not an appropriate venue for teenagers, and further demonstrates that the attempts made by the promoter to 'clean up' their event have fallen tragically short.

We are more concerned than ever, as we have reviewed a staggering number of Twitter and Facebook postings from teens who seem to be flocking to Las Vegas for this event. While I acknowledge that the promoter has increased the age of admittance to 18, our past experience with this promoter and the EDC tells us that younger teens will not have much difficulty getting in, as the event is so large it has become impossible to control.

Parents should know exactly what the EDC is, because Insomniac's website will not tell them. While we don't doubt the promoter's intent of creating a festival of electronic music, the EDC has become an open air drug market and consists of 500,000 young people in a confined space, with the vast majority of them using drugs. I strongly advise all parents to ensure their teenagers do not attend this event.

Furthermore, we are disappointed in Mayor Goodman's comments on the event, which we hope are simply the result of a shocking lack of understanding of the risks associated with the event, rather than a desire to feign innocence as a preemptive political strategy in order to protect himself from being held personally responsible for the inevitable disastrous aftermath of the EDC.

It is our hope that once we are faced with the inevitable tragic results of this weekend's event, parents will demand that the media and our elected officials will stop allowing businesses to profit at the expense of the health and safety of our teenagers.

Lastly, I commend Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak for his recent comments on the event, which follow below."*

"Las Vegas has a lot of experience handling big events, so we're probably more prepared than most cities in dealing with this kind of thing. But is it enough? I have my doubts, given the type of crowd this event attracts," said Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak. "The amount of money it brings to the Las Vegas economy is not enough to justify the loss of a young person's life."

The event is taking place at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which is located in unincorporated Clark County.

John Lieberman is available for interview.

CONTACT FOR VISIONS: CONTACT FOR COMMISSIONER SISOLAK:
Jonathan Franks Erik Pappa
LUCID PR Director of Public Communications
jonathan@lucidpublicrelations.com EPappa@ClarkCountyNV.gov
310-713-4351 702-455-3548

*Commissioner Sisolak's statement should be read as a stand-alone item, and any requests for further details on his position or requests for comment should be directed to Mr. Pappa in his office.

SOURCE Visions Adolescent Treatment Centers

Visions Adolescent Treatment Centers

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