Raves are night parties attended by young people between the ages of 14 and 25; they consist of DJs who play loud electronic music normally generated by computers. Raves first emerged in the mid-1980s in Britain as after parties when clubs were closed. Since then, raves have gained popularity in many other countries around the world and have expanded into a youth culture. Entrance fees to raves normally range from $5 for evening events and prices have risen to as high as $200 for larger events. Since rave events have attracted up to 30,000 young people aged between 14 and 25 to one event, drug use at raves has recently become a concern for parents and politicians as well. To make raves safer, policies have been created to try to control rave events and to legally advertise and organize a rave today; the promoter must hold an appropriate permit. Banning underground raves will only make them more dangerous because they are harder to monitor, so more lives will be at risk. The Government must take responsibility for trying to help make raves safer; Rave parties should not be banned by the government. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The bans would only force clandestine raves to be held illegally in unsafe locations. Underground raves proved to be much more dangerous than controlled raves. If the government banned raves, raves would simply move underground, making them much more dangerous. To acquire a rave permit, the venue must comply with the rave protocol created to ensure the safety of rave venues. According to protocol, venues must have been serviced well before the event and the venue must provide free running water. Underground raves have been the cause of many deaths due to lack of water, air or space. On October 10, 1999, Allan Ho, a 21-year-old Ryerson student, died of an ecstasy overdose at a rave. He attended an underground rave that was held in an abandoned warehouse that provided no running water and very poor ventilation. The venue was certainly not the right place to hold a rave with 3,500 people and even the police officers called the place a fire trap. Driving raves underground is dangerous. Remember, Allan Ho's death occurred in an unlicensed location. (Chow, 2000). Since there are no regulations for raves held underground, promoters typically risk the safety of everyone else by turning off running water and charging up to $5 per bottle of water. Underground raves are always held in a mysterious location that is normally not revealed until a few hours before the event (Wier, 2000). Promoters do this to discourage police surveillance, and therefore there are no police and paramedics outside the event like at controlled raves. It is much better to have ambulances, firefighters and 70 paid policemen lined up outside ready to respond to problems sooner, rather than too late (Levy, 2000). Having paramedics outside raves has already saved 21 people who have been taken to hospitals attending raves at CNE in the last 3 years. The 21 people would have been found dead from overdoses if there had been no one out to help them. The government needs to make raves safer by allowing more control rather than banning them, so that raves are forced to hide where they are most dangerous. Raves are today's youth culture and will continue to exist even if the government tries to stop them. In the past, cultureyouth was always at the center of concern for parents and politicians. Like rock concerts in the 1970s, drugs were a problem, but stopping them wouldn't solve the problem, in fact it would probably make it worse. They continued, because it was youth culture and no adult could stop it from happening. Youth cultures that existed in the past, such as disco, Elvis, swing kids and rock fans, all had their share of drugs, but they were all an expression of themselves and politicians were not ready to stop people from express yourself freely. Raves are also seen as a stress relief by the outside world, as raves have attracted a variety of people who consider themselves outcasts, but at raves the peace, love and unity make them feel wanted. but what struck me more than the immense sensorial happiness was the extraordinary group of people who shared this experience with me: six thousand young, beautiful, humans who had fun together. No arguments. Nobody cries in the corner. No one sick on the stairs. Everyone smiling. Six thousand brothers and sisters of every race, class and sexual orientation, live equality. Beautiful. (Raver) Since their inception in Canada 10 years ago, raves have changed a lot since they began as events where a group of teenagers would take speakers and equipment to a warehouse and go inside, then party all night or until the police. he introduced himself. Nowadays raves are held publicly and today raves feature amazing lasers, artificial fog, spinning discs and lots of friends to meet (Farley, 2000). Raves are unstoppable; they represent what young people are today. Raves are threatening the very fabric of Canadian life (Fatino, 2000). Raves pose no threat, but banning them would destroy youth culture. Raves should not be banned, the government cannot abolish what so many people stand for, youth culture will continue. The government should not ban raves, but instead provide more control over legal raves and more drug education. Attempts to ban raves in the UK in the past have been unsuccessful. After raves were outlawed, they slowly moved into the nightclub scene, dangerously mixing alcohol and drugs (Weir, 2000). The combination of alcohol and drugs posed an even greater threat to public health. Drug education is more important than trying to prevent drugs from being used at raves, because drugs can be accessed outside of raves in places such as clubs, concerts and schools. Instead, teaching the public about the dangers of drugs and how much someone can take before the drug becomes a threat to their life is more valuable. Toronto's municipal government has also demonstrated that allowing raves to take place on city-owned property is much safer than holding raves on private property, where building standards may be minimal. Since March 1997, a total of 14 raves have been held on the Canadian National Exposition grounds. Data was collected from 13, it showed that a total of 298 paid police officers were employed and in addition to that, there were licensed OPP security guards. A total of 82,100 people attended 13 raves and 21 people were taken to hospital, but no one died and 86 arrests were made. The 21 taken to hospital were all later discharged after treatment (Downing, 2000). These numbers show that when a rave is controlled, police and paramedics can be there to help when needed. At controlled raves, the minimum ratio of a paid officer to attendees by law is 1 to 500. At a rave with more than 1000 patrons, there must be contracted ambulance services for a minimum of four.