BANNING RAVES NOT THE ANSWER

The remarkable thing is that more kids aren't dying of drug overdoses at
raves. It's a credit to the city's stringent policies for these events.

In spite of the deaths last weekend of two people who attended an all-night
dance party at the Pacific Coliseum, the solution is not to stop raves from
taking place. Raves have been banned by the political ostriches in Surrey
and New Westminster, but there's no appetite for that here. It's clear
Vancouver's politicians realize the risk to kids if these activities are
driven back underground.

By most measures, the city's policy around licensing raves has worked, even
though drug consumption is fairly widespread. As one promoter said to me:
if you can't keep drugs out of prisons and school, how can you expect to
keep them out of raves?

For years before the city and rave promoters agreed to a set of guidelines
in late 1999, these events, often involving thousands of young people, took
place in every manner of unsafe location, from warehouses to basements.
Kids were at risk simply by being at the site, never mind the drugs and
booze and violence.

The guy credited with pushing the city hardest to create a policy that
would allow legal raves is Salim Lakhani, owner of Swing Kids
Entertainment. It was his event where the two young people fell ill and
later died in hospital.

Lakhani started the business 10 years ago, when he was 17. Not long after,
he began pushing the city to regulate and permit raves.

He was part of the crowd with the punk haircuts who negotiated the policy
with the city's licensing department and turned up to see council pass it
two years ago.

If you consider the hurdles a promoter has to jump through, you realize how
tough the policy is. Every application has to be approved by the city, the
police, the health department and the fire department.

The promoters pay for the hall, the security, the paramedics and the city
cops. At last weekend's event, there were 14 city cops, eight trained
first-aid attendants and 95 security guards. Every person who entered was
patted down for drugs, booze and weapons. They all also agreed to be
searched at any time during the night.

Even with that, you can be sure that nearly half of them were stoned.

While Lakhani is obviously shaken by the incident and seriously thinking of
canceling an event he'd planned for New Year's, he in no way feels he is
responsible. Indeed, he did nothing wrong.

He is a "Just Say No to Drugs" advocate. He has a lot of time for RCMP
constable Scott Rintoul, Canada's top cop for raves and rave drugs, and the
subject of David Carrigg's profile in the Courier three weeks ago.

But the simple fact is that kids will put all manner of things in their
mouths to get ripped, from Coke and aspirin to pot and acid to the
potentially lethal cornucopia of illegal pharmaceuticals that turn up at
raves and night clubs these days.

And then there is booze, which still ranks as the most destructive of all
drugs, both on its own and in combination with whatever else is being
passed around.

Testing drugs at rave sites for their purity, as one councillor naively
suggested last week, is hardly a solution. Whoever allowed that would end
up sanctioning the use of illegal drugs.

And even if a specific pill was found to be, say, pure ecstasy, the ravers'
drug of choice, pop too much of it and you could still overdose. Then who
would carry the can for that?

The city says it's reviewing its policy, but I don't expect much will
change, nor should it.

Kids will continue to take risks. We will do our best to reduce the
potential harm. Most will survive. Some will go on to achieve great things
and a very few will die.