THEY'RE NOT GOING THERE JUST TO GET HIGH

A new study explains why kids are attracted to raves, and why shutting
them down is exactly the wrong solution.

The drug of choice at raves is marijuana, not ecstasy. As of 1997,
there were no deaths as a result of ecstasy reported in Canada.
Toronto ravers dance in rows facing the DJ. Most ravers are Caucasian
and middle-class. And the only people these soother-suckers don't
like are super-coiffed, open-shirted "Ginos," who they feel subvert
the true nature of raves.

These are some of the findings in a new study, Raving in Toronto:
Peace, Love, Unity, Respect in Transition, to be published in the
Journal of Youth Studies in October. The study was conducted by Tim
Weber, a former research associate at the Toronto Centre for Addiction
and Mental Health, who is currently a research manager at the Angus
Reid Group in Toronto. Weber, 37, says the Toronto Centre for Addiction
and Mental Health commissioned the study "to get a better understanding
of what's going on in the scene." The result is "one of the first
studies of the rave scene in Canada."

Field research for the study, which included interviews with 75 rave
attendees, was completed in the summer of '97. The average age of the
participants was 22. More than one third were students.

Weber was surprised to find that the drug of choice at raves was
marijuana. Media accounts of rave culture had led him to believe he'd
be hearing much more about ecstasy. "Marijuana is not as interesting
or as sexy as drugs like ecstasy or GHB [known as liquid ecstasy],"
says Weber. Media hunger for fashionable drugs and talk of legalizing
pot under the guise of "medical marijuana" has made smoking a joint
less outre.

Problems stemming from ecstasy, says Weber, are often related to the
fact that people don't drink enough water while on the drug, rather
than being directly related to the drug itself. In his report, Weber
cites a 1996 study, Ecstasy: Dance Trance and Transformation, that
noted: "Deaths linked to ecstasy use have been reported in Great
Britain and were usually associated with the drug's ability to increase
sweating and heart rate. Most of the deaths were a result of heat
stroke and not directly linked to the toxic effects of the drug
itself." Weber adds: "To date [1997], no ecstasy-related deaths have
been reported in Canada."

Weber says he is unaware of any current deaths as a result of ecstasy.
Police in Toronto say it's hard to determine the exact cause of death
when ecstasy is involved because it may have been taken with other
drugs. But the biggest concern in the club scene right now is ecstasy
itself being laced with other substances.

In an interview with the National Post, Detective Rick Chase, of the
Central Field Command Drug Squad in Toronto, says the rave scene
currently revolves more around adulterated drugs. The major shift is
that "over the last two years we're finding the 'quality control' is
not what it used to be." He says police labs in Toronto have shown
that ecstasy or e (clinically known as MDMA) is often laced with other
substances including harder drugs, PCP and even Draino. Chase says
drug patterns in Toronto are often repeated across Canada and noted
that in Montreal police are now finding more and more laced ecstasy.
According to Chase, the urban myth that pure ecstasy comes from
Amsterdam is used to lure people into thinking that what they are
getting isn't cut. Police in Toronto say that their busts reveal the
pills come from a place a lot less glamorous -- Ontario.

"Ravers recognized that what they are doing is risky," says Weber.
"They want information. 'When I take this drug what's going to happen?
How long is the high going to last? Am I going to be seeing things? Is
it OK if I mix it with other drugs?' "

Weber believes we should take a two-pronged approach when it comes to
youth drug use -- discouragement coupled with practical information.
"We're not dealing with a perfect world," he says. "It's a given that
a relatively small percentage of young people will go to raves. Out of
that small percentage some of them will be doing drugs. Out of that,
some will smoke marijuana only. Some will smoke pot and do ecstasy.
Some will do ecstasy and acid, etc, etc. That's your given, so what
are we going to do about it?

"Sure you could try the 'Just Say No' approach, but we've seen that
that's been unsuccessful here and abroad. For the kids who are going
to be doing these drugs, we have to work with them to teach them how
to use them safely." He suggests using pamphlets, for instance, since
ravers are used to picking up party flyers.

Weber feels closing raves down would be a huge mistake. "That's not the
answer," he says. The study notes that the "shift to 'legal space' has
helped ensure raves have become safer over time." Says Weber: "At least
now they are relatively above ground. They have running water. When
they're in the city they're close to fire departments, the police,
hospitals. If you shut them down they'll only go underground, and who
knows where they're going to show up.

"Illicit drug use isn't something that just happened in the last
couple years. It was going on in the '60s. The names of the drugs
change. At least at a rave there are precautions being taken (on-duty
police officers and ambulance services on the premises) as opposed to
an event 20 years ago that maybe wouldn't have those things there."

But, media accounts notwithstanding, says Weber, raves are not just
about drugs. When participants were asked why they went to parties,
Weber said he was shocked to hear "they like it because it was an
escape, a mini vacation. Some would go on to say, 'My family life
wasn't that good, I can be with my friends and get away from it all.'
For somebody who's in their mid-twenties - and some of these kids were
high school students - to hear them say, 'I need a vacation, I need a
break, I need a family,' that's something worth hearing. They're not
going there just to get high, they're going there because it's where
their friends are. They have problems with other groups of people."

The non-judgmental atmosphere was a huge draw for many considered to
be social outcasts. "Some kids, the computer geek types, they'd be
'nerds' within their school, yet they go here and they'd be the top of
the heap if they were into programming their computers and making
music," says Weber.

"Many of the women were saying, 'I was treated as a person, not as a
sex object. It wasn't a whole night of guys trying to get into my
pants.' Even some of the overweight kids could go and be [comfortable]
at the party."

According to the study, most of the people who attended raves came
from what was loosely defined as middle-class backgrounds. "Raving was
recognized as being an expensive leisure activity." The study reported
that Toronto raves were predominantly attended by Caucasians, but were
comfortable places for people from different racial backgrounds as
well as for young gay men and lesbians. "Ginos" and "Ginas" (Weber
defines the terms as "derogatory labels usually associated with
individuals of southern European origin") were the one group not liked
by several younger respondents.

"They're like the big body-builder people," said one 19-year-old male
quoted in Weber's study, "like doing steroids and like bringing their
little girlfriends along with them and just - they just - all they
care to do is go there and get drugs and look at women all night.
They're not really there for the music. They're not there for
partying, not there for the vibe. They're not there for anything."

Many of the young people interviewed, in fact, stated that "only going
to the parties to use drugs was inappropriate behaviour." The media
was blamed for providing a warped picture of raves and advertising
easy access to drugs that attracted many non-ravers to the scene.

So what does Weber think of the media's most recent effort, the cover
story in the current issue of Toronto Life, "Adventures in Clubland,"
by Ian Brown? Weber found the article "disappointing." Ravers, he
says, would be "disgusted again. They'd say, 'Same old kind of stories
again. Kids staying up all night and getting high.' Those pictures
that were in Toronto Life are the kind of things that would drive
these kids up a wall."

Det. Rick Chase also felt the Toronto Life article was off the mark:
"From what I know of the scene, I think it's an exaggeration." For
example, when Brown states that "everyone agrees that at least eight
out of 10 people in any given rave club are high on [ecstasy]," the
drug squad detective says he "finds that hard to believe."

Several Toronto papers have "had some pretty questionable articles
over the last couple of years," adds Weber. "Unfortunately, it's what
everybody reads. If this is the information Mr. and Mississauga are
getting, it's not the whole picture."

Weber admits that "yes, there are a lot of drugs being used there and
sure something needs to be done about it." However, he points out that
Toronto's emergency rooms are "not seeing a huge number of kids who
have been at raves overdosing. We'd hear about it."

Most of the people Weber interviewed were not spiralling toward a drug
death. Doing ecstasy did not automatically lead to overdosing and drug
addiction. "The same things were coming up around cocaine in the early
'80s, where one snort and you're hooked for life," says Weber.

"There's more alcohol-related damage coming out of bars. You see
stories where one or two kids have died from attending raves. There
are probably more people killed on a weekend in the summer because of
drunk drivers than there are in an entire year coming out of raves.

"The kids recognized they would grow out of it. It's a two-year shelf
life. Most people don't want to party all night for the rest of their
lives."