OTTAWA URGED TO DEAL WITH RAVES

Toronto chief seeks drug education, faults parents

While police Chief Julian Fantino called yesterday for federal
assistance to deal with drugs and violence at raves in the city, he
thinks the problem may begin at home.

"I would like the Prime Minister to come and spend one evening with me
on the streets and neighbourhoods of this fine city. . . . We'll show
him what reality's all about," Fantino told a news conference.

The chief said the reality is a city with drugs, guns and youths with
no supervision, and the symptoms of those problems are raves and
after-hours clubs.

In the wake of a month-long crackdown on after-hours clubs and raves
by Operation Strike Force, Fantino appealed to Ottawa to initiate a
national program on drug education, lamenting that the millions of
dollars in funding for drug awareness in the mid-1980s and early '90s
are no longer available.

The task force, which involved city, Ontario Provincial Police and
RCMP officers, seized a variety of drugs - including hashish,
marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy.

Since most participants at raves are between 14 and 24 years old,
Fantino also appealed to the parents of teenagers who are "out all
night" to explain the presence of kids at raves.

"We know where the children are. The question I'm asking now is do we
know where the parents are?" said Fantino, who questioned why some
parents would let their children stay out until dawn.

The truth is some parents don't realize their teenagers party all
night.

"Some kids say they're staying at a friend's house for a sleepover.
Then that friend says he's staying at the other's house," said one
18-year-old raver, who uses the party name Pixel. "That's a classic
line."

According to several young people interviewed downtown last night,
others sneak out after their parents have gone to bed and make sure
they get home before anyone in the house wakes up, explained Pixel's
friend, a 17-year-old girl with bright pink hair who uses the party
name Poohbear.

"I tried that when I was about 14," Poohbear said. "But my parents
found out and put plastic stuff over the windows so I couldn't go out."

Pixel, who lives with his parents, says if he's going to a rave, he
lets his parents know.

"I tell them where I go. They're pretty cool," he said. "You shouldn't
be hiding it from your parents because if you end up overdosing at a
party and you don't have any I.D. on you, it's going to be really hard
to notify your parents."

The two teens said the rave scene is full of drugs. They said they
smoke pot but don't touch the hard stuff.

"We just recently lost a friend who overdosed on a whole bunch of E
(ecstasy)," Pixel said.

"I don't want to end up a statistic in the news . . . lying in the
morgue with a tag on my toe that says Jane Doe," Poohbear said. "You
have to be smart about it."

Both said if teenagers want to go to a rave, they'll get
there.

At the news conference, Fantino said close to 100 drug-related charges
were laid against 47 of the nearly 21,000 people who attended two
raves targeted by the task force on March 25 and April 22 at the CNE's
Better Living Centre.

Without specifically saying that the city will no longer give permits
for raves at the CNE, both Fantino and Norm Gardner, chair of the
police services board, said yesterday they will "request" that raves
no longer be held on those grounds.

Part of the latest crackdown included targeting 22 after-hours clubs
that have a history of violence.

During the first six weeks, 53 arrests were made at these clubs and
various weapons were seized, including 12 handguns and two sawed-off
shotguns.

Operation Strike Force was created following two deadly shootings
outside downtown Toronto clubs. Bouncer Andrew Robotham, 32, was shot
in the head March 4 and bouncer Christopher Palmer, 25, was killed in
a shooting Feb. 14, less than a block away.