COUNCIL CONSIDERS BAN ON RAVES IN RICHMOND

Mayor Believes Vancouver Will Be Last To Permit All-Night Events

RICHMOND - A decade ago, Salim Lakhani, 32, helped take the local rave
culture out of the underground.

At that time, he successfully petitioned Richmond city council to
legalize raves, something it has decided no longer makes sense in
today's waning rave culture, rampant with illegal drugs such as
ecstasy and crystal methamphetamine.

However, Lakhani said banning raves would be "ridiculous."

"I think you're going to see some people starting to look at
underground venues," Lakhani said. "There's safety issues,
fire-exiting, proper plumbing and toilets. You name it, all those
things are going to be issues."

He remembers taking members of Richmond city council to an unregulated
rave in the mid-1990s and a gang fight broke out. Without police at
events, he said, raves weren't as safe as they are now.

But Richmond council is citing the slumping appeal of raves -- fewer
parties and higher costs --and drug use by rave-goers as key factors
as they consider banning them.

"I believe they'll probably end up going somewhere like Vancouver,"
said Mayor Malcolm Brodie.

He point out that Vancouver will be the last city in the GVRD to
permit the all-age, all-night dance parties.

"Raves are not fulfilling the same role as they did over 10 years ago."

Back then, he said, raves were a big deal.

"The feeling was, because they were popular with the youth that if we
banned them, all we were doing was driving them underground," he said.
"We regulated them."

This approach seems outdated now that the number of licensed raves has
dropped from 12 in 2000 to five in 2006, said Brodie, adding the bad
side of raves, particularly rampant drug use, has gotten worse.

"I am told the problem with the drugs has escalated and the abuse has
escalated," Brodie said, referring to a report by Richmond's community
safety committee.

"It was always an issue but it is now far more of an issue,"

The report noted that increased prevalence of drugs required more of
an RCMP presence, something that cost more than the $5,400 paid
towards policing by rave organizers.

The committee calculated that policing the last two raves cost an
additional $11,000.

"It is time we phased them out," Brodie said of raves. The motion to
do so could be passed by Richmond's city council by July, he said.

Vancouver city Coun. Kim Capri said banning raves isn't a good
idea.

"The permitted and licensed events make a difference," she said.

"If we don't do that, you'll have unsecured premises without police
presence."

"At least there's a police presence monitoring the events."

When an event is legal, police can work with organizers to make sure
they are safe and have security, said Vancouver Const. Howard Chow.

"If they're made illegal, the problem is, they'll be made underground
like they used to be," said Chow.

But the local rave scene is in sharp decline, said Sgt. Scott Rintoul
of the RCMP drug and organized crime awareness service. Seven years
ago, he said, RCMP used to see raves in Richmond every weekend, but
that's not the case anymore.

"It's not really a big deal," said Rintoul, who has been monitoring
the scene for a decade.

"What has happened -- probably for the good -- is that the whole scene
has gone into the clubs."

Lakhani agrees that club culture has absorbed a lot of the rave scene,
but said rave parties still draw crowds.

"Are they as popular as they were? No," he said. "They're still going
on."

They shouldn't be illegal, he said.

"At what level does it seem like it's a smart idea to take away all
the infrastructure and push people back into warehouses?," Lakhani
said.

"They're still going to want to do this."