The audience was composed mostly of educators and substance abuse prevention professionals from southeastern Michigan.
Michael Braun, the morning speaker told attendees about the damaging effects of club drugs to the brain.
“Club Drugs” is a term used to describe a wide variety of drugs most often used at all-night dance parties (“raves”), nightclubs, and concerts. Club drugs can permanently damage the neurons in your brain, impairing your senses, memory, judgment, and coordination. Unfortunately, we are seeing a scary trend of the substances moving out of the clubs and into the schools and neighborhoods.
Morning speaker Michael Braun cited the influence of the internet on club drug use. “80% of the information on web sites is incorrect,” reported Braun, Special Agent in Charge of Drug Enforcement Administration from Detroit. “Kids all across the world think club drugs are safe due to the promoters and their marketing of raves.” Braun spoke specifically about sites that are built by people who advocate not just the use of club drugs, but also the legalization of drugs. The conference encouraged educators and parents to become more computer literate so that they can get to know the sites that their kids are viewing and how to help children recognize a site that is created by the types of people that could benefit from misinforming people.
The SEMCA booth was one of many displays at the conference.
The truly sad fact is that even if these drug analysts tell the person contemplating taking these substances that they are laced with substances that they have deemed unsafe, the user will take the drugs anyway because they have paid a lot of money for the drugs.
Braun informed the audience of recent drug seizures and how dealers are creating secret rooms (one was even found built into a rental storage unit) to evade drug enforcement officials while they manufacture their lethal products. “The drugs are produced in Europe and Mexico for around $2 a tablet, shipped illegally into the U.S., and sold for anywhere from $25 to $60 per tablet.”
Braun believes “The most effective way to counter this threat is to bring law enforcement together with educators to plan strategies to stop this problem.” SEMCA also advocates parental involvement and dissemination of factual information to counter the flood of misinformation.
The afternoon speaker was David V. Gauvin, Ph.D. Gauvin updated attendees on club drugs at the national level. He has worked at the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington D.C. for the last five years. Prior to 1998, Gauvin conducted drug abuse-related research for eleven years as a Research Professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
“Everyone in this room is making a difference,” Michael Braun said. “In 17 years we have cut drug use in half. We are headed on the right track.”
For a review of last year’s conference and accurate, detailed information about the different individual club drugs, please visit the SEMCA web site at www.semca.org/rave.htm.
The conference received considerable attention from local media. Kenneth Krygel (in front of the camera), Alcohol & Drug Recognition Expert at the Criminal Justice Training Center of Macomb Community College, shows the TV cameras some of the items that ravers use to enhance their high.