No penalty for Sun God drugging

In yet another attempt to tame a nasty run of drug and alcohol poisoning at its annual Sun God rock festival, UCSD is setting up an official beer garden, to be ringed with double fencing, security forces, and bartenders trained for on-site interventions.

The move comes almost a year after the drug-overdose death of undergraduate Ricardo "Ricky" Ambriz following a day of partying at the May blowout. The tragedy underscored longtime substance-abuse problems at the university, prompting calls in some quarters for abandoning the party altogether.

According to a 2014 Sun God post mortem released by the school last August 31, "Approximately 85% of all Sun God incidents involve alcohol. Almost half (48.6%) involve the student being admitted to our on-campus detox centers. Around 13% of all academic year incidents occur during Sun God weekend."

Two years prior to Ambriz's death, UCSD chancellor Pradeep Khosla had set up the Sun God Festival Task Force to investigate ways to deal with the drug and alcohol problems created by the concert.

The beer-garden idea was first floated in a November 2013 report by the task force. "An internationally recognized expert on alcohol abuse among college students, Dr. Kim Fromme, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, is serving as the task force consultant. Dr. Fromme spent a full day on campus in late September, and is scheduled to return in February.”

According to a subsequent report, Fromme was paid $4500 for her services.

Said the task force: “Consider [a] ‘Bear garden’ [sic] event adjacent to the Sun God venue, where students over 21 years old could purchase beer during the event. We recognize this may be controversial, but students from the I-House/Village area gave feedback that they would consider not having parties at their residence if they knew they could drink somewhere else.”

The sanctioned drinking facility will make its debut at this year's Sun God festival, on Sunday, May 3, from 2 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.

"The entire beer garden area will be surrounded by a double fence to prevent beer from being handed off to students outside of the beer garden," according to the event's website.

"Providing a beer garden is a potential harm reduction strategy. By making beer available in a safe and controlled environment, event planners are able to reduce the perceived need by students to consume alcohol outside of the event, where over-consumption and other significant health and safety concerns may occur."

According to the guidelines, "Students who are deemed to be intoxicated at the ID check or at the entrance to the beer garden will not be permitted access to the beer garden. All bartenders will be TIPS (Training for Intervention Procedures) certified. TIPS is a skills-based training program that is proven to prevent intoxication, underage drinking, and drunk driving. Controls will be implemented to limit the pace of beer sales.”

Just saying no is not an option, the website says. "Studies of college student drinking behavior show that prohibition models are ineffective at changing student behavior related to binge drinking."

And though legions of cops from across California have traditionally been recruited by UCSD to police the event, a similar tolerance applies for drugs, the festival site indicates.

"If you do choose to engage in drug use: Make the decision to test your pills with an affordable drug testing kit, such as those available at dancesafe.org. Engaging in harm reduction strategies is paramount should you make the decision to engage in drug use."

Continues the advisory: "Remember: you WILL NOT be punished for your drug/alcohol use retroactively after seeking help from an official. Our utmost priority is your safety."