Few EDC revelers checked their drugs at the gate
The DJs finished spinning, packed up and left the city. More than 115,000 people followed.
That’s right, Las Vegas, the 2013 Electric Daisy Carnival is over.
While officials warned of traffic problems, police attributed only seven accidents to the festival. And, after three days, 49 people were arrested for felony narcotics charges, compared with 53 last year.
To reduce narcotic use, security enforced the use of “amnesty boxes” at the entrance. The boxes allowed attendees to turn in their illegal drugs, no questions asked and no action taken. Once attendees passed the security gate, they could be arrested if found with drugs on the premises.
“We fill that sucker up 50 to 80 times an hour,” said George, a security manager with Central Investigative Security Services who declined to give his last name.
But, he said, few attendees willingly turned in their narcotics. Most drugs put into the box were confiscated by security from attendees trying to sneak them past the checkpoint.
The drugs stayed behind, but
he said. “My approach is present your case.”
The tax will pass if commissioners vote the same way they did on a December resolution showing the Legislature their support for increasing the sales tax rate. Commissioners voted 5-2, with Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak and Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani opposed.
On Monday, Sisolak, also a member of the Fiscal Affairs Committee, said he remains concerned about the proposal.
“I think any tax has to be fair and broad-based, and I question if this is either,” Sisolak said. “It’s just not broad enough based.”
He said that residents don’t have to pay a sales tax on manicures, pedicures or massages but do have to pay sales tax if they’re buying school supplies for their child.
At the Monday meeting, the committee approved a resolution that recognizes the change that the Legislature made this session. That change gives the police department the flexibility to use the sales tax revenue to replace or supplant existing funding for police officers through June 30, 2016. The resolution doesn’t increase the sales tax rate.
If the sales tax is approved, the earliest it could go into effect is Oct. 1.