CLUBBING: STARK RAVING MADNESS

The next time your kids tell you they're going "clubbing" or to an
all-night rave and there's nothing to worry about because bottled
water is the drink of choice, throw the main switch. Lock them in.

Okay, I exaggerate.

But certainly, yesterday's announcement of a multi-million dollar
designer drug bust across the GTA puts a whole new complexion on the
club and rave scene. And it gives parents picking their way through
the minefield of raising teenagers one more grim worry.

According to police, and to the teenagers we talked to, there's an
explosion going on in the all-night dance party scene -- both in
numbers and drug use. Six years ago, says "Larry", a veteran raver in
this, the "raviest" city on the continent, 1,000 used to be a big
party. Two or three years ago 2,000 was huge. "Now, I've been at
parties where there are 10,000," he says.

As for the dance clubs, where the denizens are slightly older than the
13-18 group at the raves, as many as 5,000 a night might show up.
Police estimate 20,000 on each of the four "weekend nights" (Thursday
to Sunday) are partying downtown in the Richmond St. clubs. Don't
believe me? Check the street life there at 3 a.m. when the clubs spill out.

Inside the dancing is wild and frenetic. The scene crackles with
headbanging sound and brilliant beatific energy. But not all -- or
even very much -- of that energy is natural. "There are people who
party just for the music and the scene," says Larry, "but lots of
people are now coming who don't even care about that. They're just
there for the drugs."

Intelligence reports filed to the Major Drug Investigation Unit (which
has just set up a special section for clandestine labs) claim that 50
to 75% of the people at the raves and clubs are on something -- 'E',
Angel Dust, Speed, Special K, you name it.

But the biggest drug explosion is in Ecstasy or 'E'. The high from
one of the little pastel pills often embossed with a benign cartoon
character lasts between four and six hours. It's a clean and
relatively cheap high, its advocates claim. For a mere $30 to $45
your brain can be flooded with artificial serotonin. You'll feel
energized, friendly, lose all your social shyness and want to dance
the night away.

"You can tell right away who's on Ecstasy," says Andrew, a 23-year-old
accountant familiar with the Ottawa and Montreal scenes. "They're all
touching each other. They're not horny, but they want to pet each
other like cats and dogs."

But new research out the department of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins
Medical School has found frightening hardware changes in the brains of
primates fed a heavy diet of Ecstasy -- in one case for only four days.

Scientists theorize the subtle brain changes could be devastating in
humans. Partiers are "slowly damaging" their brains and are "totally
unaware" that it's happening, Una McCann, a Johns Hopkins associate
prof, warned. She says as they age, the E partiers will begin to
notice some predictable problems -- depression, memory lapses as well
as anxiety and sleep disorders. Others suspect the tremors they've
seen that look like early-onset Parkinson's disease can be traced to
the use of another designer drug, Crystal Methamphetamine. "Crystal
Meth" is used by those in search of longer high (8-14 hours) but it's
less predictable and more addictive, researchers say.

While drugs were always part of the scene, ravers say there's a new
greediness today. More kids, more drugs, more often and certainly
more casualties turning up unconscious in emergency rooms in downtown
hospitals.

One young university student went missing and was later found dead
during a three-day rave at a campground at Sauble Beach this summer.
Toxicology tests are being performed, but the police at the time were
alleging he had taken Ecstasy and Speed.

Drug investigators are astonished how quickly the problem has taken
root in the heart of Toronto. A year ago they were launching a
marijuana project and stumbled into this scene. The undercover cops
spoke to the brass. A few months later, Det. Sgt. David Brownell,
head of police efforts to crack organized drug operations, got funding
to set up the clandestine lab section. Within a month they were
estimating 10,000 people were on designer drugs each night downtown.
And at precisely 6:30 on Wednesday morning, 100 cops swooped. Banged
on doors or took them down as they walked in with their arrest
warrants. They came up with $320,000 in cash, a couple of BMWs and
Mercedes, a $500,000 home, $500,000 in drugs and 13 arrests.

For Brownell this was a very personal quest. He's got kids of his own
in the target age and at least one of the people arrested is an old
adversary who pleaded guilty in '94 to being a "kingpin" in the city's
cocaine trade. He was out on parole. Brownell sounded weary
yesterday but you could hear the smile in his voice when he said:
"He's back in jail today."