Raves become all the rage

[erickamikaze]

From an article in the Sun-Sentinel. Its kinda long, and fills the stereo type of electronic music and drugs.

PACHUCA · Through the darkness, young people stumble along an uneven path into the thick forest of Mineral del Chico, a national park 60 miles northeast of Mexico City.

Flashes of neon-green and fuchsia-pink lights illuminate the rock-strewn trail and the Technicolor hair and multiple piercings of the hipsters. Police at the entrance to the trail frisk everyone who passes through, as smoke from marijuana joints and the pyrotechnic machine waft through the dense brush.

Suddenly, the trees give way to a gigantic pit, where 4,000 to 5,000 kids sway to syncopated music booming from a DJ booth.

This is a rave; a phenomenon imported from Europe that in Mexico draws legions of young psycheros. They see themselves as modern hippies. They dance all night to "psycho-trance" music. And they consume lots of drugs such as ecstasy, LSD and amphetamines, police say.

"This is our Woodstock," said Fernando Cisneros Cruz, 17, of Mexico City. "We're Mexico's counterculture. We take psychedelic drugs and party nonstop."

"We're out here in nature to celebrate peace, love, unity and respect," said Cruz, using the English words to form the acronym, PLUR, that psycheros live by.

With the growing popularity of club drugs, Mexico has become both a destination and a trans-shipment point for chemical substances, said an agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The rave scene arrived in Mexico in the early 1990s and quickly attracted artists and intellectuals seeking a new way to party. Today, raves make up a sizable subculture of mostly lower- and middle-class psycheros who shun drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

A seminal rave event occurred last year in Guadalajara, when police arrested 40 youths. Psycheros say authorities reacted harshly because they saw that raves were quickly becoming a haven for drug users.

The raver's drug of choice is ecstasy, or MDMA -- methylenedioxymethamphetamine, a stimulant and mild hallucinogenic popular in U.S. nightclubs in the late 1980s and '90s.

"We're starting to see abuse of ecstasy, LSD and methamphetamine in Mexico's metropolitan areas," said Dr. Victor Manuel Guisa Cruz, general director of the Juvenile Intervention Center, a national organization funded by government grants and private benefactors.

"Consumption of methamphetamine and ecstasy has increased due to the youths' lack of knowledge about the enormous danger they cause," said Dr. Guido Belsasso, commissioner of Mexico's National Council Against Addictions.

A new study from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has linked ecstasy with permanent brain damage and Parkinson's-like symptoms in some users.

Once imported mostly from Europe, MDMA is now being produced in Mexico, said an agent from the attorney general's office, or PGR.

"But the quality isn't as good. The pills are often mixed with methamphetamine, PCP, or pharmaceuticals," said the agent, who asked that his name not be used.

Today, ecstasy producers mark their pills with Asian lettering or stenciled animals, such as scorpions, to build brand loyalty.

At the Mineral del Chico rave, dealers circulate freely, hawking their wares over the deafening thumps of bass lines: "Ecstasy! Acid! Meth!"

Ravers dressed in ancient tribal wear, bleached-white tunics and glittery 1950s-style space suits routinely stop the dealers.

At 1 a.m., one dealer says he's almost sold out. "I can barely keep up. Everybody here wants to get high," said the teenager, clad in a long white fur coat and matching white-rimmed sunglasses.

Dr. Arturo Alvarado, a sociology professor at El Colegio de Mexico, in part blames Mexico's sputtering economy for the growing drug use.

"Without an education or jobs, youths have a hard time integrating themselves into society," he said.

[pod]

Well The Sun-Sentinel is really on top of things, aren't they?

Can't wait to read their story on the moon landing!