BIG DRUG SEIZURE SPARKS WORRIES

Cop -- Ravers At Risk

The discovery of a large amount of the date-rape drug GHB and the animal
tranquillizer Ketamine in a raid has raised police fears about young
party-goers mixing dangerous cocktails.

Dealers smuggle GHB -- clear, odourless gamma hydroxybutyrate acid -- in
water bottles, which 14 Division vice-squad boss Det. Howie Page said "most
people at raves carry."

"This makes it next to impossible to enforce or detect," Page said
yesterday. Use of the knockout drug "is increasing," he said.

But Page said the discovery of almost $150,000 worth of Ketamine in a raid
Monday on a Clifton Ave. home, where four people were arrested, has raised
even more concerns for police, doctors and health specialists.

Cash, Swords Found

The raid yielded restricted and narcotic drugs worth a total of $170,000
police said. The haul also included heroin, Ecstasy, the narcotic drug
crystal methamphetamine, marijuana, more than $18,000 in cash and 100
knives, swords and crossbows.

Ketamine, called "K" or "Special K" is "stepped on" or cut four times with
other substances and sold at raves for an average $25 per 5 cc capsule. The
chemical gives ravers such a normal, controlled look "that when they go
home, their parents would have trouble spotting that they've taken drugs,"
Page said.

Page said people "snort liquid Ketamine, which they call 'bumping' ...
because it provides an extreme high," to counteract the "tremendous crash
when coming down" from Ecstasy.

"This is worrisome, close to the rave scene," he said. "We haven't got
Ketamine in this amount before, or this purity."

Police seized 2,500 ml of high-grade Ketamine in a raid on the home of an
alleged underworld drug kingpin who was arrested earlier as he left the
Comfort Zone Bar on Spadina Ave. Undercover officers had the Waverly Hotel
bar under surveillance for illegal drug-related use.

David Lorenz, 20, his brother Rob, James Joseph Tremblay, 33, John Paul
Mallany, 22, and Cheryl Fonseca, 21, appeared in a Toronto court yesterday
on drugs and weapons charges. All were remanded in custody.