RAVES FIND PLENTY OF TAKERS IN MEXICO

European Import Attracts Growing Number of Youths Who Mix Music, 'Club Drugs'

PACHUCA, Mexico - Through the darkness, young people stumble along an
uneven path into the thick forest of Mineral del Chico, a national park 60
miles northeast of Mexico City.

Flashes of neon-green and fuchsia-pink lights illuminate the rock-strewn
trail and the Technicolor hair and multiple piercings of the hipsters.
Police at the entrance to the trail frisk everyone who passes through, as
smoke from marijuana joints and the pyrotechnic machine waft through the
dense brush.

Suddenly, the trees give way to a gigantic pit, where 4,000 to 5,000 kids
sway to syncopated music booming from a makeshift DJ booth.

This is a rave; a phenomenon imported from Europe that in Mexico draws
legions of young psycheros. They see themselves as modern hippies. They
dance all night to "psycho-trance" music. And they consume lots of "club
drugs" such as "ecstasy," LSD and amphetamines, police say.

"This is our Woodstock," says Fernando Cisneros Cruz, 17, of Mexico City.
"We're Mexico's counter-culture. We take psychedelic drugs and party nonstop."

"We're out here in nature to celebrate peace, love, unity, and respect,"
says Fernando, using the English words to form the acronym, PLUR, that
psycheros live by.

With the growing popularity of club drugs, Mexico has become both a
destination and a transshipment point for chemical substances, said an
agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"Mexico is importing more club drugs to where they are being used," the
agent said on condition of anonymity. "And for the producers, getting club
drugs into Mexico puts you 98 percent of the way to street sales in the U.S."

History of rave scene

The rave scene arrived in Mexico in the early 1990s and quickly attracted
artists and intellectuals seeking a new way to party. Today, raves make up
a sizable subculture of mostly lower- and middle-class psycheros who shun
drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

A seminal rave event occurred last year in Guadalajara, when police
arrested 40 youths. Psycheros say authorities reacted harshly because they
saw that raves were quickly becoming a haven for drug users.

The raver's drug of choice is ecstasy, or MDMA -
methylenedioxymethamphetamine, a stimulant and mild hallucinogenic popular
in U.S. nightclubs in the late '80s and '90s.

"We're starting to see abuse of ecstasy, LSD and methamphetamine in
Mexico's metropolitan areas," said Dr. Victor Manuel Guisa Cruz, general
director of The Juvenile Intervention Center, a national organization
funded by government grants and private benefactors.

"Consumption of methamphetamine and ecstasy has increased due to the
youths' lack of knowledge about the enormous danger they cause," said Dr.
Guido Belsasso, commissioner of Mexico's National Council Against Addictions.

A new study from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has linked
ecstasy with permanent brain damage and Parkinson's-like symptoms in some
users.

At the Mineral del Chico bash, ravers are oblivious to all that.

"I'm so high right now," says Francisco Velez Tovar, an 18-year-old student
from Mexico City wearing only boxer shorts.

"I took something and I don't even know what it was," he shouts over a
chorus of "Up, up, down, down, tabs, tabs of ecstasy," blaring from the
sound system. "Some kids I met poured a powder on my tongue for free, since
I didn't have any money."

Once imported mostly from Europe, MDMA is now being produced in Mexico,
said an agent from the attorney general's office, or PGR.

"But the quality isn't as good. The pills are often mixed with
methamphetamine, PCP, or pharmaceuticals," said the agent, who asked that
his name not be used.

Building brand loyalty

Today, ecstasy producers mark their pills with Asian lettering or stenciled
animals, such as scorpions, to build brand loyalty.

At tonight's rave, dealers circulate freely, hawking their wares over the
deafening thumps of bass lines: "Ecstasy! Acid! Meth!"

Ravers dressed in ancient tribal wear, bleached-white tunics and glittery
1950s-style space suits routinely stop the dealers.

At 1 a.m., one dealer says he's almost sold out. "I can barely keep up.
Everybody here wants to get high," says the teenager, clad in a long white
fur coat and matching white-rimmed sunglasses.

Dr. Arturo Alvarado, a sociology professor at El Colegio de Mexico, in part
blames Mexico's sputtering economy for the growing drug use.

"Without an education or jobs, youths have a hard time integrating
themselves into society," he says.