RAVE BUST FLAWED FROM THE START

POLICE BUSTS for narcotics tend to target pot growers or known traffickers
and crack houses. Tips from informants or disgruntled gang members are part
of this long-lasting "war on drugs."

But the battle seems to have gone seriously awry at a rave dance on Maynard
Street in Halifax last month.

First there was the uproar over Halifax Regional Police strip-searching the
rave's young employees - before the dance event actually began and while
almost all customers waited outside. By going after the rave workers rather
than dancers, the police seemed to suspect they had drugs for sale. As it
turned out, the haul consisted of two bags of marijuana and some pills.

No charges were laid, which didn't soften criticism from patrons of these
events who say it's all fun, bright lights and what appears to older folk a
lot of late-night exertion to incessant loud music. (By repute, at least,
drugs are not as scarce as liquor.)

Now it's known from a search-warrant the police expected to find 200 vials
of the "date-rape" drug GHB hidden in the dance-floor ceiling. An informant
had told police rave organizers "commonly" traded the drug ecstasy. Another
informant said he or she witnessed ecstasy and GHB being stashed in the
ceiling.

The raid was thus initially justified by that information. However, no drugs
of any kind were found in the ceiling - the specific point of the search
warrant.

That leads back to a crucial question: were the police legally or ethically
justified in strip-searching the 50 rave staffers? So far, it doesn't look
that way. In any event, it was a bad blow to good public relations.