RAVES AND ECSTASY ALL THE RAGE

Editor, The News:

Raves are the sensation right now when it comes to a Friday night of
non-stop partying. Who would not love raves, tonnes of techno music, lots
of nice people, pumping up-beat dancing, and lots of ecstasy?

As we already know, the usage of ecstasy, crystal meth, and cocaine are all
on the rage. Ecstasy being the highest, and most of it is popped at raves;
and some of these raves are legal. To clarify, 90% of "raves" are illegal,
but the other 10% of legal raves are still consumers of ecstasy.

In the long run, 15% of youths between the ages of 14 and 20 die each year
in Canada alone due to drug use. Now imagine the rest of the world. This is
a growing problem, which people tend to ignore. Ecstasy is so accessible
today, that its even being dealt in schools. Drug dealers are making
thousands of dollars selling drugs made from kitchen and bathroom cleaner
to your kids, which people are popping to get high.

So were does the ignorance come from? The media has a giant influence on
whatever else kids are doing these days. Peer pressure and stressful life
styles are always some definite reasons. But what actually makes a kid turn
to drugs? Childhood traumas such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal
abuse, incest, divorce and abandonment will also influence destructive
child behaviour. Sure we can lock then up in their rooms till they are 30,
or we could try to explain to them the effects.

But what happens if we have youths talking to others youths about drugs?
Instead of having an adult explaining it to them (which might make them
uncomfortable,) we could have ex-drug abusers, or teenagers levelling with
them. There's not point in closing all raves, because it brings in lots of
money to the communities, it's somewhere teens can interact with others,
somewhere we can let loose, somewhere we can have fun, and considering we
don't have a lot of places for older kids to go and have fun, its one of
the reasons they are so popular. But definitely increase drug-awareness
programs, posters, guest speakers, commercials, and drug counsellers. This
may help the drug use go down, maybe even save some lives. It's time the
community does something about it. And it gives teens the chance to speak
their minds and work with others.

Erin Tulloch
Maple Ridge Secondary