ECSTASY IN THE WOODS

Bush parties may be the poor cousins of raves but their drugs are the
same. Just as much ecstasy is consumed by young people who hike into
the woods to party as by those who buy expensive tickets to high-tech
rave events, says Kerry Robinson, the substance abuse prevention
promoter for the region's public health department.

Of the $5 million of ecstasy seized at Toronto's Pearson International
Airport yesterday -- the largest Canadian seizure of the drug -- as
much would have been backpacked into the wilderness as would have been
bought at all-night dance parties.

So why do raves get all the attention?

"Because there's nothing sexy about a bunch of kids drinking beer in
the bush," Robinson says.

And there you have it.

There are no strobe lights or pounding dance tunes at bush
parties.

The clothes are less glittery and more mosquito proof. And the
invitations are usually passed on by word of mouth rather than
Internet hotlinks.

Bush parties are more frequent, more dangerous and less supervised
than raves. Yet raves are the youth-problem-du-jour and every
politician, cop and public health worker is eager to solve it.

On Tuesday, Hamilton-Wentworth regional council approved a plan by the
medical officer of health to study the local rave scene and develop
municipal regulations for all-night dance events.

With virtually no discussion, council decided to spend time and money
on a study of -- what? Where are all these raves that are striking
fear into the hearts of adults?

If you think of raves as underground dance parties in abandoned
warehouses and boarded-up commercial buildings, Hamilton has never had
any, says Robinson, who will help with the study.

But if you call a later-than-normal dance at a licensed downtown club
a rave, yeah, we've had a few.

Nobody knows how many raves there are in Hamilton, but Robinson says
there are fewer than last year.

In the past, downtown clubs held "raves" every now and then. They'd
stay open past the regular 2 a.m. closing time, would allow teens of
all ages and would not serve alcohol.

That changed in January when it was announced a coroner's inquest
would look into nine ecstasy-related deaths last year in Ontario.
Suddenly, club owners and rave promoters were squirming under the
scrutiny of police and the media and the local rave scene recoiled,
according to Robinson.

One downtown nightclub has been forbidden by city council to stay open
past 2:45 a.m., making an all-night rave impossible. A rave at the
Hamilton Convention Centre in February was shut down at 3 a.m. instead
of 8 a.m. because of police pressure. And a rave planned for Mohawk
College in March was cancelled after college officials got a visit
from Hamilton-Wentworth police.

The Convention Centre? A college? Fifty years ago, these hazardous
gatherings would have been called sock hops. Right now, the closest
Hamilton gets to having raves is offering organized bus trips to raves
in Toronto.

Still, the rhetoric about ecstasy-laden raves in our community is
thick.

Yesterday, Hamilton-Wentworth Police Chief Ken Robertson ranted about
raves at a press conference he co-hosted with Solicitor General David
Tsubouchi.

Robertson doesn't want to regulate raves at all. He wants them
banned.

"This is not good, wholesome fun," he said. "This is not a dance. This
is a drug party that goes on from 7 o'clock at night until 7, 8 or 9
o'clock in the morning the next day."

In an interview later, Robertson burst his own bubble by saying that
"in our community (raves) are very little problem" thanks largely to
police efforts and community leaders should stop focusing on the issue
and "move on."

Hamilton has never had a reported incident of an ecstasy
overdose.

A 1999 survey of Ontario students by the Centre for Addiction and
Mental Health showed 18 per cent of youth reported attending a rave in
the last year and 44 per cent of those reported using drugs.

The same survey said ecstasy is used just as much at bush
parties.

The drugs are the same but bush parties add beer. That's beer for a
lot of underage drinkers far from prying eyes.

The health department's newly launched campaign against binge drinking
can apply to bush parties, but it doesn't specifically target them.

While community leaders are busy being proactive about potential rave
problems, bush parties result in real and often dangerous problems
every year. Every warm weather weekend in the dark isolation of the
woods, things that might not happen at a dance club are possible. And
when something does go wrong, police, paramedics and firefighters are
farther away.

Vandalism, illegal fires and liquor offences occur for a
start.

Sometimes there are sexual assaults, drug trafficking and assaults on
police who try to break up the party.

In 1993, one teen was killed and three injured when a drunk driver hit
a tree on the way to a bush party in Stoney Creek.

In June 1996, a 19-year-old Rockwood youth was killed when three dirt
bikes collided during a bush party in Acton.

One year ago this weekend, members of the Oriental Blood Brothers
street gang ambushed 20 high school students at a bush party at
Felker's Falls Conservation Area and attacked them with machetes and a
nail-spiked baseball bat. One student's hand was nearly severed and
his skull was fractured. Many others were injured.

I doubt there are any raves going on in Hamilton to celebrate May 24
weekend. But I'll bet there's a bush party coming to a woodlot near
you.