"Rave " Parties !

One Saturday night a thousand young Sydney people surreptitiously gathered at an abandoned warehouse in the suburb of Botany for a "Drum and Bass "party.  The actual location was carefully screened and those attending only learned the address at the last minute via a mobile voice mail.  This was a big event scheduled to go until dawn and would feature forty DJ's operating from separate stages.

This event was illegal in that it did not have the necessary permits and late in the night the police swooped with a raid.  Most of the partygoers dispersed peacefully, but there were several altercations with the police that involved thrown bottles - and one or two arrests.  No doubt both alcohol and drugs would have been present at such an event but the police claim that the close down was on safety grounds.  Having that number of people in a warehouse lacking exits and fire safety measures was too big a risk factor.

One of the rueful partygoers described the police breaking up what seemed to be a good party as a "bummer ", but otherwise they seemed good humoured.   It does tend to illustrate the wide gulf between the party aspirations of young Australians and the venues that cater for their needs.

Whenever an official event is openly advertised in the media and widely publicised  there is the expectation that the police will be covering all entrances with drug sniffer dogs and searching bags for illicit alcohol.  Any such public event has the expectation that paramedics will treat some cases of adverse drug reactions - and there is the ever present possibility of an untimely death, and yet the measures to save lives are resented by most partygoers.

Perhaps that secret rave party last Saturday night was an omen on how the party scene will develop in the future.  As long as society has existed, control measures to prevent excess are both broken - and ignored.  In the early days of settlement, Sydney town was awash with sly grog shops.   Then there was the era of the ever present SP bookie - before the coming of the TAB made legal betting available to all.

The reality is that an overwhelming number of our young people use drugs in much the same way as their elders used alcohol - to get a "high "that lasts for some time.  It is also an indisputable fact that the vast majority suffer no permanent harm, but the unavailability of what they normally use will cause them to try a substitute - and some of these are highly addictive.   It also invokes that old wisdom that "forbidden fruit is sweet ".   The very fact that something is illegal can be a huge incentive for those with a mix of bravado and the wish to stand out amongst their peers.

Perhaps we are reaching a more permissive age where the impetus should be on saving lives rather fighting a losing battle.  Even when the police use maximum effort and heavily police the entrance to public entertainment it is painfully obvious that drug use continues unabated.  On the world  scene, legalizing of Marijuana seems inevitable and the biggest problem with drugs such as Ecstacy is the unknown strength factor when it is produced in illicit drug labs.

It would make more sense to fortify the medical aid instantly available at crowd events to treat drug misadventure and consider legalizing the least harmful drugs to ensure a constant strength factor.  The biggest hurdle seems to be acceptance that it is morally acceptable to gain the same level of euphoria  delivered by alcohol by ingesting a mix of chemicals.  Years of implacable opposition to the very idea of drugs has produced a mind set that will be difficult to change.

At present, we are horrified when someone dies of a drug overdose or a drug trial reacts adversely to the users metabolism.   If these sort of rave parties take hold there is the liklihood that more people will die because medical help will not be quickly available and the venues will be beyond a quick response, not to mention the danger of crowded scenes in buildings that completely lack safety features.

Perhaps now is the time to evaluate the entire drug scene - and bring reality into the picture !