Fiona Ma Will Attend Raves Before Banning Them

Who knew raves still even happen? Apparently, for plenty of folks, the 90s never ended, and a recent spate of rave-related deaths have now captured lawmakers' eyes.

At issue is the location of the raves: state property. Some of the recent drug injuries and deaths have occurred at the Cow Palace, and so legislators feel that they have an extra duty to stop the problem in its tracks.

Fiona Ma thought that she had hit on a solution: instead of helping attendees to reduce harm, simply ban the raves.

But her proposed bill wound up being way too broad. It would have banned a whole host of musical events, including Outside Lands and the Treasure Island Music Fest.

So now, Ma has reversed course. She'll withdraw the bill as written, and instead will do more research into the events. That includes visiting and actual rave sometime in 2011, she says.

She may be surprised by what she finds. Ma told SF Weekly that she expects people to be walking around like zombies, vomiting everywhere, and lying in urine.

Despite her ideas about their danger, Ma hasn't expressed any interest in banning raves altogether. She just wants to move them off of state property, so that people go die somewhere else.