Pubdate: Tue, 06 Nov 2012
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.edmontonsun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author: Lorne Gunter
Page: 5

KIDS WILL PARTY

Seriously, is a rave really any more a threat to Edmonton than, say, a
Metallica concert?

OK, maybe that's a bad example. When I dropped our teenage son off at
one of Metallica's Edmonton concerts at Rexall Place in August, there
were a lot of fans whose strongest drugs these days were for high
blood pressure, arthritis and cholesterol. If they have to have their
stomachs pumped, it's for having taken two Viagra too close together.

But you know what I mean. Are today's raves really that much more
dangerous than a Metallica concert would have been at the band's
heyday in the 1980s?

I doubt it.

As I said, I am the parent of a teenager - two, actually. So I am not
deaf to concerns that raves, such as last April's Elements Music
Festival at Northlands' Expo Centre are rife with drugs washed down
with booze. But keeping kids off alcohol and away from drugs such as
Ecstasy begins at home, years before they choose to go to a rave drunk
and high.

Last spring's Elements attracted 17,000. That's the same as an Oilers
game (when there used to be Oilers games). That is an indication of
the interest in and acceptance of raves among many young
Edmontonians.

It is impossible to make anything that attracts 17,000 customers go
away, entirely. So if city council chooses to ban raves by refusing to
issue permits to hold them, then councillors will, as Mayor Stephen
Mandel warns, "push ravers underground."

And councillors won't push the "good" ravers underground. A ban might
stop the ordinary, middle-class ravers from attending. But they aren't
the problem in the first place. They're not the ones smuggling in
drugs and liquor and abusing both.

A ban would simply force the "bad" ravers underground - the 5% or
fewer who are causing problems.

It's unfortunate that of the 17,000 patrons at Elements last April, 41
had to be treated by health staff onsite and of those six had to be
taken to hospital. It's tragic that one - an overdose victim - faces a
life of health complications. But is that the fault of the rave
organizers or Northlands, or of council for not banning such events
earlier? Not likely.

It cannot be said with certainty that this person would have overdosed
anyway, whether at a rave or not. Still, most overdoses are not a
mistake by a rookie drug user, they are the culmination of a history
of recreational drug use or addiction.

It seems to me that 0.2% of ravers (that's what 41 of 17,000 works out
to) hardly represents an epidemic of drug abuse justifying a ban on
such events.

Then there is the legal problem of defining a rave as opposed to a
concert or dance. Just what is it, genetically, that distinguishes a
rave from other music events? If council cannot accurately define one,
it will be impossible to ban them.

If the cost of extra police or public health staff at raves were being
born by taxpayers, I'd change my mind. If taxpayers were being forced
to subsidize these private events indirectly through the Edmonton
Police Service or Alberta Health Services budgets, council would be
right to limit or even stop such mass parties. But Elements'
organizers paid $150,000 for police protection and an additional
$30,000 for medical staff.

Coun. Kerry Diotte, who attended Elements to see for himself, said the
level of dangerous or anti-social behaviour he witnessed was no worse
than is often seen along the bar strip on Whyte Avenue on weekends.

Kids will party, Diotte said,so "let's make sure they are in a place
where it's safe."
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