COUNCILLOR WANTS DRUG TESTING ALLOWED AT RAVES

Coun. Sandy McCormick is challenging the RCMP's policy of not allowing
ecstasy testing kits into all-night dance parties, after two overdose
deaths at an East Vancouver rave last weekend.

"If we are looking at harm reduction for drug problems in the Downtown
Eastside, then we should apply the same priorities to raves. There must be
some means to protect youth at those parties," said McCormick.

City staff have been asked to investigate options to make city-approved
raves safer. Currently Vancouver and Richmond are the only Lower Mainland
municipalities that allow raves.

Harm reduction is one of the four pillars of the city's Framework For
Action to fight the Downtown Eastside's drug problem. The document,
released last fall, stated the city wanted to "develop official policy to
support efforts to test drugs for content and purity at rave parties."

However, shortly after the document's release, RCMP drug awareness officer
Scott Rintoul said the RCMP and other police agencies would charge members
of the harm reduction group DanceSafe if they didn't stop testing ecstasy
at raves.

Rintoul argued that it was inappropriate to have security guards outside
raves searching for drugs, while volunteers inside tested drugs.

The testing kit works by adding a drop of sulfuric acid onto a scraping
from a tablet. If the resulting mix is black, it means the pill contains
ecstasy. If the pill contains speed and ecstasy, it goes orange, then
black, and if it contains the potentially deadly DXM, it smokes, then turns
black. No result at all is considered a bad sign.

The deaths of a 16-year-old youth and a 24-year-old woman at the PNE rave
on the weekend are believed to be due to a bad batch of ecstasy, a growing
problem highlighted in a Courier cover story Oct. 14.

Terry Smith, B.C.'s chief coroner, said autopsy results will be available
within two weeks, at which time a press conference will be held to warn
youth and parents about the dangers of ecstasy use.

Although Smith supports the concept of harm reduction, he does not believe
the portable ecstasy testing kits are effective.

"You need a $50,000 gas chromatograph, which is not a portable instrument,"
said Smith, adding if a test shows a tablet to contain ecstasy, it doesn't
make the pill safe.

"There's nothing I've found that says once a pill is tested as ecstasy,
it's a safe drug. Ecstasy alters the seratonin levels in the brain, which
can last for six months and cause bouts of depression for months. Harm
reduction is worthwhile to look at, but not all of it is the right approach."

McCormick said if the city cannot be assured raves are safe, then they
should not be allowed. Currently, the city issues licences for all-night
dance parties on the condition security and first-aid attendants are present.

Rintoul said stopping authorized raves will not stop the problem.

"People are saying if you eliminate the rave, you eliminate the problem.
That's not true. These drugs are everywhere, the drugs are in the
nightclubs and at house parties and you can't shut them down."