USC president warns students about raves

USC Pres­id­ent C.L. Max Niki­as warned stu­dents from at­tend­ing raves, which he called “a spe­cif­ic danger that has be­come in­creas­ingly pre­val­ent” in Los Angeles. He spe­cific­ally re­ferred to raves held near USC at the Coli­seum and Shrine Aud­it­or­i­um, and warned that be­cause the hal­lu­cino­gen­ic drug Ec­stasy is com­mon at the events, “they present ser­i­ous risks to all who at­tend.” The let­ter, re­leased on Jan. 26, 2011, was dis­trib­uted a week be­fore the Coli­seum Com­mis­sion meets, and could dis­cuss wheth­er to bring back the Elec­tric Daisy Car­ni­val rave in June to the Coli­seum. A 15-year-old girl, Sasha Rodrig­uez, fatally over­dosed on Ec­stasy at the Elec­tric Daisy Car­ni­val in 2010.