IT'S 'JUST ABOUT FUN'

Worries about rave drug Ecstasy are overblown, kids say

Daybreak on a Sunday morning, and still there's no rest for the young
revellers.

If your kids weren't fast asleep, they may have been wincing through red
eyes as they trudged, baby pacifiers clenched between their teeth, from one
of the many all-night dance parties in Toronto.

Or perhaps they were carried out on an ambulance stretcher -- bound for a
hospital where overworked doctors would try to figure out just what
concoction of drugs was being ferried through their young veins.

Last week, Deputy Chief Coroner Dr. Bonita Porter called an inquest into the
overdose death of 21-year-old Ryerson University student Allan Ho. The
business major died almost four months ago while consuming the drug Ecstasy
at a west-end rave party -- one of nine rave-related deaths in the province
last year.

Just a day before she made Thursday's announcement to use Ho's death as a
way to spotlight concerns over Ontario's booming rave culture -- a lifestyle
fuelled by pounding techno-music beats, dusk-til-dawn dancing and too often
a shopping list of new drugs that emergency room doctors often can't even
screen for -- RCMP and Canada Customs at Pearson Airport reported they had
made another sizeable Ecstasy bust.

The confiscation of 8,000 hits hidden in a man's girdle came after an
airport body search of two passengers uncovered a record 30,000 Ecstasy
pills -- valued at $1 million.

Toronto has a taste for the charms of Ecstasy. Police note Canada's most
cosmopolitan city is one of the top North American cities for demand of the
designer drug.

All the fuss did little to calm the bass beat of parties raging from one end
of Toronto to another yesterday -- or stop the sale of the Aspirin-sized
pills at as much as $40 a pop.

At 6 a.m. yesterday, medics had to pull three male ravers in their early
20s -- all showing signs of overdose -- from the Liquid Lounge on Dufferin
St. After reaching hospital, two were said to be in good condition, while
the third was guarded.

It was just one of many overdose runs made around Toronto throughout the
night.

Shortly after the trio were pulled from the Liquid Lounge, 17-year-old
body-pierced raver Joe stood outside the club -- defending the parties and
the drugs, while waiting for a parent to come pick him and his friends up in
the family Dodge.

"You could put a black man and a Klansman in a rave together and they'd get
along -- it's about being happy," said Joe, his bloodshot eyes squinting
against a new sun.

Celebrating his 18th birthday yesterday, Joe's friend Mark explained
problems only happen when inexperienced people don't know which drugs to
mix.

FEEL PEACEFUL

"College kids," he sniffed, as if that explains everything.

He said the drugs foster a sense of peace and make you feel the music deep
within -- ignoring questions about how much tranquility is found in an
emergency room with a doctor pushing enough epinephrine into you to raise
the dead.

Bonnie, an 18-year-old who feverishly sucked on a baby's pacifier -- a
trademark of ravers who try to counteract the jaw-clenching effects of the
drugs -- said she couldn't think of anything a coroner's inquest could find
wrong with raves.

Except for the $4 bottles of water sold inside the alcohol-free club, she
concluded. A small fortune can be made by selling expensive water and
juice -- vital products because of hours of frantic, jerking movement and
drugs that affect the body's natural thermostat.

Bonnie also complained about her sore jaw.

Supporters of raves -- and there are many -- say people either understand
the dance culture or they're way off base in believing it's a fall-down
drugfest.

They're quick to point out many more people die after drinking than taking
in a rave -- saying the parties are an easy target for the media and are no
different than the alcohol and drug trends of previous generations.

However, coroner Porter believes many parents are lulled into a false sense
of security because the parties are often alcohol-free and promoters brag
about high security and medics on standby. Some of those same ambulance
attendants have refused to work raves again, after feeling powerless to stop
the overdoses taking place in front of them.

Porter said the Ho inquiry -- likely to be held in Toronto in the spring --
will be the first chance officials have had to explore the rave culture. Ho
died at Humber River hospital's emergency department last Oct. 10. He had
taken Ecstasy at a rave in the underground parking lot of an old factory on
Alliance Ave.

SHOULDN'T MIX

Ravers argue when taken on its own, Ecstasy is a clean, safe, recreational
past-time -- a drug Newsweek claimed LSD was supposed to be. Rave champions
believe trouble begins when it's of poor quality or combined with other
drugs, which can include everything from gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) --
often call Liquid Ecstasy -- to Rohypnol -- commonly used as a date-rape
drug.

"Look out on the street at night, and watch the dealers -- it's all big
business," said Paul Burford, a well-known Yonge St. businessman who lives
in a home attached to his House of Lords hairstyling shop.

He now spends his weekends in exile at his Lake Simcoe cottage. He can no
longer stand the constant chest-pounding music coming from the all-night
dance club across the street from his urban home.

"You can feel the air move from the sound of the music. And it keeps going
until 9:30 a.m.," he complained.

"I'm used to noise. But not this."

>From his cottage, he said he's tired of seeing young people being dragged
unconscious from the Spin Cats club. One morning, he watched as teens dumped
a limp friend into a car's trunk and drove off.

Inside that club, dancers yesterday argued whether it even qualified as a
rave -- semantics coming down to the dress of clients and whether a place
has tables or is wide open.

Unlike trying to talk to a drunk at a bar, the ravers knew their minds and
were quick to fend off criticism.

One dancer who wasn't arguing was a teenager taken by ambulance from Spin
Cats at around 8 a.m. It was suspected she was felled by a drug overdose.

Just a few minutes before the ambulance was called to the club, raver
Leanne, 19, stood away from the music and explained: "Drugs are everywhere.
This isn't just about raves."

Her friend, 26-year-old Bash -- studs in his tongue -- said being at a rave
is safer than being at a normal club.

"They have ambulances, and there are hardly any fights," he said. "If you
stop raves, people are just going to go to an unsafe venue. Raves are just
about fun."