STARK RAVING MAD

It's sad, but at the same time a little frightening, to listen to all those
who keep insisting that despite growing evidence to the contrary, drug use
is not a cause for concern in Toronto's rave scene.

Drowning in nostalgia for their rebellious youth, some critics suggest
anyone who is worried is just an old fogey who fears kids.

Since they've taken to ridiculing those who disagree, perhaps they could
explain their logic to Mui Phuong, mother of Allen Ho, 20.

A Toronto inquest has heard Ho died of complications after taking Ecstasy at
a rave. "I'm really hurt, I don't want to see other parents hurt," she said,
adding she believes her son would be alive today had he not gone to a rave
in an underground garage last October.

After that, glib politicians and clever commentators might want to address
the inquest testimony of Dr. Jim Cairns, Ontario's deputy chief coroner, who
noted that while the drug Ecstasy is marketed at raves and elsewhere as a
harmless mood enhancer, "this is an illicit drug. It can kill. If it doesn't
kill, the jury is still out on its long-term side effects." (Our skeptics,
of course, would reply that only three of the 13 Ecstasy-related deaths in
Ontario of healthy males, average age 23, since 1998, have occurred at
raves, leaving us to wonder how many people will have to die before they do
become concerned.)

Recently, police seized 170,000 Ecstasy pills valued at $5 million at
Pearson airport on the the heels of another seizure of 144,000 Ecstasy pills
at Montreal's Dorval airport. They say it's part of a global smuggling ring.
The skeptics, of course, would say it's cop paranoia.

An emergency room doctor at St. Michael's Hospital testified every weekend
night St. Mike's treats up to half a dozen patients who have taken club
drugs, some at raves. She said they often come in frightened, suffering from
such symptoms as interrupted breathing and violent outbursts, which they
cannot later remember.

When our skeptics are done explaining why that's no cause for alarm, they
could then address the recent Toronto ambulance report to city council which
says treating people at raves for drug overdoses has at times so overwhelmed
the ambulance service that entire neighbourhoods have gone without service
for hours.

Given all this, the message to council is clear. It should not allow raves
on city-owned property at the CNE. As for trying to regulate private raves,
council is ill-equipped to do so through existing health and safety bylaws
and needs new powers from Queen's Park. Now.