RAVES, ECSTASY GO MAINSTREAM

As Dance-Parties Grow, So Does Concern About Club Drug

When James Mock, a national expert on the illegal drug ecstasy, came to Wisconsin last month to educate law enforcement officers, he decided to drop in on a local "rave."

He found one of the controversial dances, which authorities say are fueled by ecstasy use, at the Winnebago County Exposition Center, a government-owned facility. It was sponsored by a 22-year-old promoter with recent "club drug" convictions, and inside, Mock encountered a roomful of teenagers exhibiting all the hallmarks of ecstasy use - dilated pupils chief among them.

Once confined to abandoned warehouse hideaways, all-night raves have now moved into the mainstream in Wisconsin, popping up with little advance warning in county- and state-owned buildings, often despite the objection of law enforcement.

Ecstasy, whose scientific name is methylenedioxymethamphetamine or MDMA, is a stimulant manufactured mostly in the Netherlands. It reaches U.S. distribution groups through Israeli organized crime syndicates, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. It has become Wisconsin's fastest growing drug problem and is lately spreading beyond the rave scene. Known as the "hug drug," ecstasy makes users ultra-sensitive to visual and physical stimuli.

Raves in Wisconsin - featuring light shows and disc jockeys playing repetitive techno music - can attract as many as 8,000 young people, prompting promoters to seek larger publicly owned venues that cost upwards of $10,000 a night.

"It's a curious public policy decision to allow events to go on that are nothing more than marketing for designer drugs," said state Rep. Gregg Underheim (R-Oshkosh), who has authored a pending bill in the Legislature to make ecstasy possession a felony. The measure is up for an Assembly vote Tuesday, Underheim said.

Nationwide, some communities have moved aggressively to deter the rave scene. In New Orleans, a club hosting raves was shut down with a crack house statute; in Chicago, a new ordinance allows criminal charges against owners of buildings that host raves.

But in Wisconsin, some public officials have been reluctant to ban them outright.

Popping Up All Over State

County exposition centers in Madison and Eau Claire, as well as Oshkosh; a National Guard Armory in New Richmond; and an American Legion Hall in Winnebago County have all hosted raves. On Labor Day weekend, thousands attended a rave in a Buffalo County field owned by the chairman of the County Board.

"A lot of events have been at colleges," said Kurt Eckes, 35, founder of Milwaukee's Drop Bass Network and godfather of the state's rave scene.

"There's been events at skate parks, in armories, community centers, roller rinks, convention centers, supper clubs. The main reason to do it in public venues is it guarantees the party is going to go all night."

Many of the events are pitched as alcohol-free teen dances. But law enforcement officials say that's a ruse, because people using ecstasy aren't interested in alcohol.

"We got hoodwinked," admits Lt. Col. Tim Donovan, spokesman for the National Guard, referring to the New Richmond rave.

Across Wisconsin, ecstasy and rave-related deaths are adding up. In Milwaukee, a 23-year-old man with ecstasy and methamphetamine in his system committed suicide by plummeting from the 10th floor of the federal courthouse. In Madison, a 16-year-old boy on ecstasy died after falling from a parking garage after a rave at the Barrymore Theatre. In Hudson, a 17-year-old boy on ecstasy perished - technically, from drowning - after being force-fed water by friends trying to lower his body temperature. A 15-year-old Shorewood girl with the drug ketamine - another popular club drug - in her system died in a car crash after a Kenosha rave.

Further, Michael Foley, staff physician of emergency medicine at St. Mary's Medical Center in Madison, said preliminary research has found that the drug can lead to memory loss and severe untreatable depression.

"I hear people say raves are about the music, and that couldn't be further from the truth," said Michael Zweifel, the father of the 16-year-old Madison teen who died in September 2000. "They are about the drug ecstasy. Brett told me the same thing: 'It's just about the music.' "

Zweifel is now furious.

"The public facilities provide a larger format for more kids to use drugs, period," he said.

Glow Sticks, Pacifiers

In January, 19 Wisconsin counties reported ecstasy was an increasing problem. By July, it was a problem in 38, said Robert Sloey, director of operations for the Division of Narcotics Enforcement.

The state Department of Justice is organizing summit meetings in the coming months to increase awareness of the problem among parents, law enforcement officials and others.

"We're getting to see more and more raves, and they are becoming larger," Sloey said. "I think sometimes there is a lack of understanding among locals about what these raves are, and the drug use that occurs."

At the Oshkosh rave on Oct. 6, several juveniles admitted to police that they were on ecstasy - but police let them go back into the rave anyway.

Mock, a former California police sergeant, had shone a flashlight on a tableful of juveniles, and seeing their dilated pupils, asked them to speak to authorities.

"Some of the kids admitted they were on ecstasy," said Oshkosh police Sgt. Tony Duff. "That's true that we let them back in the rave. We needed to establish probable cause that they took it. We were not sure that the technique Mr. Mock used was valid, to look at the pupils. I just don't know how valid looking at someone's pupils is, in order to question them in the first place."

Randy Romanski, a spokesman for the Wisconsin attorney general's office, said that under state law, if a juvenile admits to police being under the influence of illegal drugs, the police have the right to detain or arrest the youth, and call the parents.

Sloey said the Justice Department also is investigating some rave promoters. "We believe at least some of these promoters are well aware - or a part of - the (drug) distributions," he said.

At a recent law enforcement conference, detectives George Chavez and Dave Bongiovani of the Dane County Narcotics and Gang Task Force played a video from a rave at the county-owned Alliant Energy Center.

Chavez said the ecstasy-related "paraphernalia" prominent at raves includes glow sticks (ecstasy users are fascinated by the light); professional masseuses (users have a heightened sense of touch); pacifiers and lollipops (users grind their teeth) and hospital masks lined with menthol ointment (users get a vapor rush). The flier advertising the Oshkosh rave, for example, said a professional massage therapist would be present and people could win glow sticks.

As the video from the Alliant Energy Center played, Chavez pointed out apparent drug deals and youths dancing with paraphernalia, such as masks.

Majority Using Drugs

"We're told 80 percent of kids at raves are generally using some kind of drug," Chavez said. "It was that, if not higher."

At many raves, vendors sell bottled water at dramatically increased prices or offer "chill rooms" to get away from the crowd and cool down, Chavez said, because ecstasy raises body temperature to dangerous levels.

Promoters argue that many of the items associated with raves have become harmless fashion trends, and are not intrinsic to ecstasy use.

"We are very serious about cleaning up the drugs," said Adam Peterman, the promoter of the Oshkosh event.

"Whenever there is a techno event, everyone freaks out and the cops swarm all over it," he said. "Honestly, it's history repeating itself. The same people who were defending rock music in the past are condemning techno music today. I didn't see more than 10 people at my event who were on ecstasy."

But Mock said the comparison to rock shows is misleading.

"There are a lot of drugs at Grateful Dead concerts," he said, "but they don't touch raves in terms of drugs."

Too Much For One Fan

Franjo Vukovic, a 21-year-old employee at Massive Record Source in Milwaukee, said he stopped going to raves two years ago. He attended raves at the Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee, the Alliant Energy Center and elsewhere.

"I totally love the music, but I stopped going because of all the drugged-out 15-year-old kids," he said. "I got tired of watching people overdose. I was going to see the music, but there was something disturbing about partying with people as young as my little 15-year-old sister, and seeing 23-year-old women and men running around with pacifiers and hugging teddy bears."

Vukovic, who started going to events in 1995 while a Franklin High School student, said the scene was the same then, too. "I just didn't notice it as much until I stopped doing drugs. . . . You can't walk more than 10 feet without being offered something at a rave - anywhere."

Becky Zuraw, 19, of Milwaukee has been going to raves since she was 16. She says she does not do ecstasy "and I never would."

The rave scene attracted her for another reason: "It doesn't matter what you look like, how you dress, who you are, what you do with your own life. . . . It's a positive atmosphere where everyone does their own thing."

She was also drawn by the effects of the light shows and the pulsing techno music.

"It sort of reminds me of midnight bowling with the big light show and everything."

Still, Zuraw acknowledges that "three of every five people are doing drugs."

She recently tried attending a rave in Illinois, but it was shut down by authorities. The ravers moved to Rockford, but they were shut down there too. In Wisconsin, the authorities are not as aggressive, Zuraw said.

"I went to one in Kenosha in the back of a Chinese restaurant," she said.

A Question Of Rights

Some communities have taken steps toward stopping the events. Washington County prevented a rave planned for the county fairgrounds; Brown County put enough restrictions on a proposed event that the promoter ended up in Oshkosh. Milwaukee police drove a big chunk of the rave scene out with a mass arrest at a warehouse in 1992.

Milwaukee police Capt. James Shepard said the ecstasy problem in Milwaukee today is mostly confined to private dance clubs. However, even when undercover officers reported buying ecstasy at a techno event in the Basement nightclub inside "The Rave" - which also sponsors other concerts - the Common Council opted not to suspend its liquor license.

Winnebago County Executive Jane Van De Hey said her community is struggling with how to deal with the phenomenon since the recent Oshkosh rave.

"It's a thorny issue," she said. "We would be interested in getting the best input from law enforcement and the legal community. They even had one at the American Legion."

Oshkosh police said they did give input in advance.

"We tried to talk them out of doing it (allowing the event at a public facility), but the county didn't think they had legal standing to deny it," said Police Chief David Erickson.

Van De Hey admitted: "Truly, I am not even aware of what a rave is."

Dane County also erred on the side of ravers' rights.

"You can't just deny people," said William DiCarlo, director of the Alliant Energy Center, which has held more than two dozen raves.

Restrictions Imposed

Over the objections of law enforcement, DiCarlo and Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk opted not to ban the events outright, instead imposing a series of restrictions.

Both Falk and DiCarlo said the restrictions appear to have worked by driving promoters elsewhere (the last rave at the center was in June, and none is scheduled).

Pacifiers and masks, for example, are now banned at the center - and were also banned at the Oshkosh event.

"We did put in place a very long list of measures going far beyond what we regularly do for the wide variety of entertainment at our facility," Falk said. "At the last event in June, those procedures seemed to work well."

But the rave promoters would still be welcome, if they abide by the rules.

"There are civil liberty issues, First Amendment issues," DiCarlo said. "What if the sheriff didn't like Ozzy Osbourne or Limp Bizkit?"

Chris Ahmuty, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, said law enforcement cannot shut down a music event because some people might be using drugs.

Ahmuty said authorities are "engaging in profiling youths" by targeting raves. As for holding the events in public buildings, he said, "If you're going to allow classical music, you have to allow techno music."

Law enforcement officials don't buy that argument.

"My position is that if you are putting them (raves) in public facilities, you are at least in some ways sanctioning them," said Steve Nolan, chief deputy sheriff for Dane County. "It gives parents a false sense of security."

Landing In Hospitals

From July through December 2000, Dane County authorities documented 64 drug arrests resulting in 105 charges prosecuted, 14 emergency medical calls, and five noise complaints after a handful of Alliant Energy Center raves.

At one, the Dane County sheriff and head of the county's narcotics unit struck up a conversation with a juvenile who admitted he was on ecstasy.

"He told us that raves are about drugs and that a rave won't work without the drugs," recalled Lt. William Housely. "Even the music is designed to specifically accentuate the effects of ecstasy."

Housely said he and the sheriff did not arrest the youth, even though he had dilated pupils and was profusely sweating.

"Although technically if there's drugs in your system that is possession of drugs, practically it is a very difficult case to prosecute," he said. "You generally have to prove more than admission. You can't take 5,000 youths down to the hospital to draw their blood."

Arrests Minimal, Promoter Says

Eckes, the Milwaukee promoter, who has held several Alliant Energy Center raves, said he still considered the number of arrests and ER admissions small considering the size of the crowds.

Although he purports to be offering events not tailored to drugs, Eckes has been frank in numerous published interviews about his past drug use. The flier for his first rave contained a reference to ecstasy. And his annual techno-campout, which he calls Furthur Fest, has been described in various publications as a drug-fueled rave version of Woodstock.

In a 1998 book on ecstasy, author Simon Reynolds wrote of a Furthur Fest: "The scary thing is how young these kids are - hardened drug veterans before they're legally able to drink at age 21. . . . Under a disco glitter ball suspended from a tree, a gaggle of amateur dealers trade illegal substances."

Eckes said descriptions of his festival were overstated.

But last year, a 24-year-old woman died after a drug overdose and two men were injured at a Furthur Fest in Jackson County. Eckes obtained a permit from the County Board for that festival.

He didn't need to seek a permit for the 2001 Furthur Fest; it was held on the property of Buffalo County Board Chairman Ron Drazkowski.

Sheriff Butch Schreiner said his force of barely a dozen officers was no match for the more than 4,000 people who showed up. More than a dozen drug arrests were made and two overdoses recorded.

After the event, a number of people wanted to complain to the County Board. But Drazkowski canceled the next meeting, citing lack of sufficient business.

"That left a large number of people who wanted to complain with no place to complain," said Buffalo County Supervisor James Alf.

Alf and other supervisors then petitioned the county clerk to hold the meeting anyway. It was held Sept. 18, and Alf made a motion to elect a new chairman. The vote was 8-8. Drazkowski cast the deciding vote - for himself.

"Every constituent I talked to said it was inappropriate and he should not be chairman, and I agree with them," Alf said.

Drazkowski said Friday: "I just thought it was something like a country jam. I didn't know nothing about a rave."