Pubdate: Thu, 18 May 2000 Source: Hamilton Spectator (CN ON) Copyright: The Hamilton Spectator 2000 Contact: http://www.southam.com/hamiltonspectator/ Author: Susan Clairmont ECSTASY IN THE WOODS Bush parties may be the poor cousins of raves but their drugs are the same. Just as much ecstasy is consumed by young people who hike into the woods to party as by those who buy expensive tickets to high-tech rave events, says Kerry Robinson, the substance abuse prevention promoter for the region's public health department. Of the $5 million of ecstasy seized at Toronto's Pearson International Airport yesterday -- the largest Canadian seizure of the drug -- as much would have been backpacked into the wilderness as would have been bought at all-night dance parties. So why do raves get all the attention? "Because there's nothing sexy about a bunch of kids drinking beer in the bush," Robinson says. And there you have it. There are no strobe lights or pounding dance tunes at bush parties. The clothes are less glittery and more mosquito proof. And the invitations are usually passed on by word of mouth rather than Internet hotlinks. Bush parties are more frequent, more dangerous and less supervised than raves. Yet raves are the youth-problem-du-jour and every politician, cop and public health worker is eager to solve it. On Tuesday, Hamilton-Wentworth regional council approved a plan by the medical officer of health to study the local rave scene and develop municipal regulations for all-night dance events. With virtually no discussion, council decided to spend time and money on a study of -- what? Where are all these raves that are striking fear into the hearts of adults? If you think of raves as underground dance parties in abandoned warehouses and boarded-up commercial buildings, Hamilton has never had any, says Robinson, who will help with the study. But if you call a later-than-normal dance at a licensed downtown club a rave, yeah, we've had a few. Nobody knows how many raves there are in Hamilton, but Robinson says there are fewer than last year. In the past, downtown clubs held "raves" every now and then. They'd stay open past the regular 2 a.m. closing time, would allow teens of all ages and would not serve alcohol. That changed in January when it was announced a coroner's inquest would look into nine ecstasy-related deaths last year in Ontario. Suddenly, club owners and rave promoters were squirming under the scrutiny of police and the media and the local rave scene recoiled, according to Robinson. One downtown nightclub has been forbidden by city council to stay open past 2:45 a.m., making an all-night rave impossible. A rave at the Hamilton Convention Centre in February was shut down at 3 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. because of police pressure. And a rave planned for Mohawk College in March was cancelled after college officials got a visit from Hamilton-Wentworth police. The Convention Centre? A college? Fifty years ago, these hazardous gatherings would have been called sock hops. Right now, the closest Hamilton gets to having raves is offering organized bus trips to raves in Toronto. Still, the rhetoric about ecstasy-laden raves in our community is thick. Yesterday, Hamilton-Wentworth Police Chief Ken Robertson ranted about raves at a press conference he co-hosted with Solicitor General David Tsubouchi. Robertson doesn't want to regulate raves at all. He wants them banned. "This is not good, wholesome fun," he said. "This is not a dance. This is a drug party that goes on from 7 o'clock at night until 7, 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning the next day." In an interview later, Robertson burst his own bubble by saying that "in our community (raves) are very little problem" thanks largely to police efforts and community leaders should stop focusing on the issue and "move on." Hamilton has never had a reported incident of an ecstasy overdose. A 1999 survey of Ontario students by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health showed 18 per cent of youth reported attending a rave in the last year and 44 per cent of those reported using drugs. The same survey said ecstasy is used just as much at bush parties. The drugs are the same but bush parties add beer. That's beer for a lot of underage drinkers far from prying eyes. The health department's newly launched campaign against binge drinking can apply to bush parties, but it doesn't specifically target them. While community leaders are busy being proactive about potential rave problems, bush parties result in real and often dangerous problems every year. Every warm weather weekend in the dark isolation of the woods, things that might not happen at a dance club are possible. And when something does go wrong, police, paramedics and firefighters are farther away. Vandalism, illegal fires and liquor offences occur for a start. Sometimes there are sexual assaults, drug trafficking and assaults on police who try to break up the party. In 1993, one teen was killed and three injured when a drunk driver hit a tree on the way to a bush party in Stoney Creek. In June 1996, a 19-year-old Rockwood youth was killed when three dirt bikes collided during a bush party in Acton. One year ago this weekend, members of the Oriental Blood Brothers street gang ambushed 20 high school students at a bush party at Felker's Falls Conservation Area and attacked them with machetes and a nail-spiked baseball bat. One student's hand was nearly severed and his skull was fractured. Many others were injured. I doubt there are any raves going on in Hamilton to celebrate May 24 weekend. But I'll bet there's a bush party coming to a woodlot near you. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea