Fielding spoke on Tuesday following a motion by Los Angeles County Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Don Knabe, which passed unanimously, calling for a task force that can develop recommendations on improving safety at raves and a public education campaign raising awareness of their potential dangers.

Fielding’s comments came about a week following the death of a teenage girl from a suspected drug overdose after she attended the Electric Daisy Carnival at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in late June. A family spokesman has said that neither parent of the 15-year-old girl, Sasha Rodriguez, knew that she planned to attend the rave, which had a minimum age requirement of 16 unless accompanied by a legal guardian.

“I don’t know why a parent would let their underage child go to one of these where it’s going to be all night,” Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the county Department of Public Health said. “You know, the chances are, they are going to be involved in drug use.”

Los Angeles County’s top public health officer questioned why minors should be allowed to attend raves – massive dance parties featuring electronic music that have been closely associated with use of Ecstasy, an illegal drug.

The connection between raves – massive dance parties featuring electronic music – and the drug Ecstasy, a hallucinogen and stimulant, is well-documented, and health officials and physicians have voiced alarm in the increasing use of the drug in Los Angeles County. The directors of several emergency rooms near the Coliseum have described how their hospitals are routinely overloaded with drug overdose patients following massive raves.

“This issue of Ecstasy use is becoming an increasing public health problem,” Fielding said. “We’re very concerned because … the most recent survey shows that more youth think that this drug has not really serious effects. They’re kind of feeling, ‘Well, this is not really a big deal,’” Fielding said, even though about 120 people from the rave were transported by ambulance to nearby emergency rooms, mostly for suspected drug overdoses.

Yaroslavsky said the task force, which is to be comprised of local city officials, law enforcement agencies, hospitals, the county emergency medical services agency, youth and rave producers, among others, needs to inform and educate the public on this issue.

“There is no way a 15- or 16-year-old truly appreciates what the risks are,” Yaroslavsky said. “It’s critical we inform the parents … the schools and the young folks who are the targets of these concerts.”

Simon Rust Lamb, a lawyer representing Insomniac Inc., the producer of Electric Daisy Carnival, read a statement at the meeting expressing hope that the task force “will create responsible and reasonable recommendations which can be implemented for all musical events in the county.”