RAVE OD KILLS STUDENT, 21

Robberies, Thefts Also Plague Huge Party

A Ryerson University student yesterday became the first known fatality from
a drug overdose at a Toronto "rave party," a detective said last night.

In addition to the overdose, Toronto Police said, several people were
robbed and numerous cars broken into near the former Cooper Canada shoe
plant on Alliance Ave., in the Jane St.-Weston Rd. area, where the party
began around midnight Saturday.

The unnamed 21-year-old collapsed around 3:30 a.m., after taking an unknown
drug in the renovated building's "filthy" underground parking garage,
police said.

He remained in critical condition at Humber Memorial hospital for 15 hours
before dying around 6:30 p.m., Det. Jerry Kocher said.

Kocher, a 27-year-old veteran of the force who spent eight years with the
drug squad, said, "You get quite a few overdoses, but this is the first
death at a rave in this division, that I know of." A search of Sun files
revealed no other such deaths in Toronto.

On Feb. 12, 1994, Daniel Tesfamichael, 21, was apparently hallucinating on
the chemical cocktail Ecstasy when he stuffed himself into the garbage
chute of his Jarvis St. apartment building and fell 12 storeys to his death.

The parties, which are advertised on fliers and by word-of-mouth, are on
the rise and are getting bigger, said Kocher, as he headed to the hospital
to meet with the drug victim's parents, who live in Scarborough.

He said the crowd at the Saturday rave was estimated by the promoter at
about Party-goers paid about $25 each to attend the event, which provided
water and sold pop. At that rate, the promoter raked in $87,500.

"They advertise no booze but everyone knows they can get it there, plus all
the drugs you can get your fingers on," Kocher said.

He said a friend of the victim called 911 and after paramedics advised
police of the deadly overdose, officers found about 1,000 partygoers still
in the garage.

"A lot of them were crashing there" overnight, lying on the garbage-strewn
floors, "or anywhere they could find," Kocher said.

He said police need evidence of criminal activity before they can raid a
rave party and even when undercover officers buy illegal drugs, "it takes
about two hours to get a search warrant and by the time they return, the
parties are usually over.

"After any raid, they (organizers) advise of another rave party somewhere
else," Kocher said.

Agony and the Ecstasy

Raves began in England in the early '80s and grew from small, private
parties into barn-stormers operating across North America in warehouses and
garages.

Partiers thrash around to pulsating music that rocks 130 beats a minute.
The most popular drug to fuel their fire is Ecstasy, the Addiction Research
Foundation warned three years ago.

It said the drug is often mixed with heroin, cocaine, crystal
methamphetamine, opium or the cat tranquilizer Ketamine.

Ecstasy, or methylenedioxymethamphetamine, was developed during World War I
in Germany as an appetite suppressant.