DRUGS ON DEMAND AS TEENS PARTY

Four young males stand around a toilet cubicle, debating how to split their
two ecstasy tablets.

"Let me take the first half, you had it first last week," says one. "Do you
have the water?" The scene is the Tantra Club under-18 dance party. The bar
is closed. But in the toilets, drugs are readily available.

Tantra is just one of any number of establishments in Sydney where drugs
are on offer from dealers and where prices have dropped as low as $25 each.

The Sun-Herald visited Tantra mid-week. The venue was chosen at random to
test the availability of ecstasy.

Teenagers paid $20 entry fee and were allowed in without any type of
search. Soon after 9pm, signs of ecstasy use were visible.

About 10pm, a Sun-Herald journalist was approached by a reveller claiming
to be "off his rocket on a pill". After asking whether our photographer was
"on anything", he said he knew where to get some drugs. Within seconds he
brought over a friend who was a dealer.

Identifying himself as Azza, the dealer asked if we were "OK in the drug
department". He said he could sell us an ecstasy pill for $35.

He continued to say that if we were interested in buying 10 or more pills,
the price would go down to $30.

Azza returned later in the night. His companion asked if we were police.
Told we weren't, Azza gave us a revised price list: one ecstasy pill for
$35, 10 for $300 and 20 for $500.

Tantra's under-18s promotions manager, Tanya Bond, later denied there had
been drugs available when our reporter visited the club and told her of our
experiences at the dance party.

"There were no drugs on the premises last night. I have been running these
dance parties for the past 14 months and I have never seen people taking
drugs, or ecstasy," said Ms Bond.

"We usually have about 400 kids, predominantly from the eastern suburbs,
who are well behaved, but I do have kids working for me who walk around and
go into the toilets to make sure everything is fine."

She acknowledged ecstasy was "increasingly becoming an option for the youth
in Sydney - and that is scary".

"Last night some venues cancelled their under-18s, so we might have got
some of their crowd at our place," she said.

"If anyone was caught dealing drugs they would be kicked out immediately
and the police called. It's very hard to regulate and I will be keeping a
closer eye on it." Risk to life the priority

NSW Police drug enforcement spokesman Commander Clive Small issued a
statement late last week in response to questions from The Sun-Herald. He
said targeting of users included covert and overt operations, drug
education programs, crime prevention through "environmental design" and
enforcement of licensing laws.

When asked specifically why police were not arresting users being caught
with ecstasy outside nightclubs, Mr Small said: "Arrest rates are not the
main performance indicator.

"Priorities are determined based on the risk to human life, risk to the
general health of the community and the threat to property."