City
Comfort Zone Busted in Early Morning Raid (Again)
No, you're not experiencing a freaky episode of déjà vu.
Last weekend, in what some deemed to be an excessive use of force, the Comfort Zone was raided by police, resulting in a large number of drug-related arrests.
But the venue was quick bounce back and to return to business as usual when they opened again this weekend.
This morning, however, the notorious after hours was again raided by police, this time resulting in the arrests of three people (two who are charged with the possession and sale of ecstasy, GHB, and other drugs; and one man was arrested on an outstanding immigration-related warrant).
It's fairly obvious that the police are making a concerted effort to send a message to those that frequent the place. The bust last week wasn't a one shot raid, and police are apparently still in crackdown mode.
Unable to get the Comfort Zone shut down for years, might it be that police have been forced to resort to repeated raids to essentially scare the club's patrons and dealers into giving up on the joint?
If they do continue their efforts to make the venue a well-known heat score, isn't this just going to push things into some other venue(s) in the city?
UPDATE: I've already had to unpublish one comment, in which an anonymous poster cursed and made derogatory statements about police (calling them ****ing pigs and making statements about police officers deserving to die). Intelligent, constructive debate is welcome here. Regardless of your anger or beliefs regarding this issue, we have to ask that you please keep your comments respectful, or they'll be removed and/or the comments closed.
Photo: Something is Up (last week's raid) by Mike Stroud
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The police should just leave this place alone since it doesn't have a history of violence, the patrons will be forced to attend a more dangerous venue.
the police should not be encouraged to stop raiding a drug den.
But that isn't even the issue: not all CZ patrons are drug users. Some people are just addicted to house music.
This is ridiculous, and should not be tolerated by a free society. I assume they didn't beat random people this time, but who knows what it will be like next time?
Please direct your outrage to councillor_vaughan@toronto.ca
And for the love of liberty, somebody please organize a protest at Nathan Phillips Square.
No one saw the raid coming last week,
and no one would have bet on a second raid a week later..
It was brilliant.
If the drugs users and dealers scatter, fine.
Do the same thing to the next nesting point.
By doing that repeatedly..it shows it won't be tolerated.
Frankly, I would do raids like this even at places
that -aren't- known as big drug nests.
It keeps the dealers and users off balance.
They should hit CZ again April 5th.
(keep in mind, I -am- anti random beatings btw)
I've already had to unpublish one comment here, in which an anonymous poster cursed and made derogatory statements about police (calling them ****ing pigs and making statements about police officers deserving to die). Intelligent, constructive debate is welcome here. Regardless of your anger or beliefs regarding this issue, we have to ask that you please keep your comments respectful, or they'll be removed and/or the comments closed.
This is exactly what the police need to do!!
Because in order to shut it down, they have to be violating the law. Usually it comes down to revoking the liquor licence and/or noise complaints, neither of which are possible in this case (the club doesn't serve liquor, and is not disturbing residents with excessive noise).
When we're talking about Universal Health care (or whatever it is we have), the government does have a responsibility to keep people healthy. Health care costs a lot and as a result, many initiatives are put in place to keep those costs down.
The problem is with drugs and CZ is as much as people say that the ones using the drugs are only hurting themselves is untrue.
The biggest most obvious is the problem of other criminal enterprise being supported by the activities at CZ. To simplify, drug trafficking puts money into the hands of people "bad" people. Not to say that all people who traffic in drugs are bad, but there are people at the top of the chain making big money. They are not adverse to using violence to protect their income.
Usually the individual drug user thinks that they are only hurting themselves, but if they do get into recovery, because the usage has become a problem, they will almost always tell stories of how their drug use hurt so many other people besides themselves.
And finally the social problems associated with drug use. From theft, and other criminal activity to support an expensive habit. To the drain on our social and health network.
CZ is not just a couple of people sitting around getting high. It is a business does not take any measures to insure that illegal activities do not take place under their roof. It is unsafe and has been tolerated in our community for far too long.
I've also heard the fast food argument before. Problem with that is that sure, banning fast food would make our nation healthier, but it is an extremely debatable issue. Drugs are not. Crack is bad for you, there is no debate about this anymore. And again, its tough to ban something that is already legal.
But hey, steps are being made. Trans fats are being banned from schools in Ontario. Not really all that long after its been proven pretty conclusive that they are bad for you.
It's pretty easy to compare the two, but we're talking about separate issues, and they can't be continually used as a pawn in discussing drug legality.
Fine, let's ban fast food and alcohol, and you know as well as I do that supporters of legalizing drugs will only move down to the next item on the list to compare their issue with. Peanuts? Preservatives? Salt?
Just because something controversial is legal, doesn't mean everything illegal should become legal.
If you want to use a fair comparison, look into things that were once illegal that were legalized.
If you want to direct anger, do it at the police or the justice system, not some councillor. (and if I'm correct, I've read comments and posts on Torontoist by him that blames Vaughan for every ill Toronto has).
i agree with bob 101%
The people posting comments here are completely blind, most apparently by choice, to the reality of what prohibition is and does. You might wanna try reading something other than government propaganda on the subject.
This is absolutely true, which is precisely why drugs should be legalized. The black market funds criminal activity, and drug dealers are often some pretty bad dudes. If drug use was legalized and regulated by an LCBO-style body, this source of income for actual crime would dry up.
> don't want some sketched out crack head breaking in and stealing things to sell for more crack
Also, if drugs were legal, people would probably use high-quality cocaine nasal spray, not crack.
Yes, you can actually drink as much alcohol as you can afford, but you don't, do you? The social etiquette surrounding drug use would be the same as alcohol: recreational drugs are meant to be used, for the most part, at night and on weekends, and not at all if you're going to be driving.
Adam Vaughan may be able to prevent this from happening again. If you were injured by the police during the first raid, you should definitely complain to the police, but the police are not accountable to citizens, they are accountable to City Hall, and these raids are happening in Adam Vaughan's ward. Tell him you think this is outrageous and he may make an effort to stop it, if he values freedom at all.
The best thing the police and politicians could do for the clubs, tourists, party-goers, tourism industry employees, restaurant owners, and bar and club employees is *leave clubs alone.*
Kevin: Check out one of the final comments comment in the Cz post from last week, as of Thursday, Vaughan's office hadn't received any complaints about the raid and instead, praise from the residents association. http://blogto.com/city/2008/03/comfort_zone_busted_in_early_morning_raid/
If CZ is still not being accountable and letting drug dealers into their establishment just a week from a raid, why SHOULDN'T the cops return and shut the place down again? Obviously they aren't taking it seriously.
I think it is a good thing that CZ got raided again! Good job!
I was like a lot of people on here, thinking they are not hurting anyone by doing drugs recreationally on the wknds. Until I tried to stop! I challenge everyone to try & stop for an extended period of time & then come on here & say you are not addicted & drugs should be legallized.
I once asked a cop friend of mine why they keep places like CZ open when they know what goes on. He says it aids them in finding criminals they might have trouble finding otherwise. How many brain cells must someone have lost to frequent a heat score like CZ?
I just want to add that I have been drug free for almost 5 yrs now and it feels great! The first yr or 2 was hard & I still miss that dirty dirty house music, but I have found other ways to fullfill my life.
Now that CZ has turned into heatscore I hope it keeps everyone away & you find other things to do on Sundays, like spend time with your family.
If drugs were legalized, they would be taxed. The end result would be a huge financial contribution to things like our ailing healthcare system or our broken public school system. Legalizing drugs is the smartest thing any socially structured government could do.
> The best thing the police and politicians could do for the clubs, tourists, party-goers, tourism industry employees, restaurant owners, and bar and club employees is *leave clubs alone.*
I spent years in the rave and club scene, especially the after-hours sketch clubs like CZ. I promoted and helped throw numerous 1000+ people events.
I've dealt with a lot of club owners and I wouldn't think leaving it all up to them would be a healthy idea. Most club owners in this city are awesome people but with them comes some pretty bad people. There has to at least a hint of checking and balancing on this industry.
For the most part, you don't hear to much about the police shutting sketch party/after hours clubs. I mean they haven't touched Blak :P Funhaus probably still goes till 6am. Raves for the most part still happen without any police intervention, a lot of parties having an avg age of 15 unless 18+.
If you're still sketchy after a party and it's 4 am for god sakes go to someone's place and chill for 8 hours.
The police should be careful as patrons in venues such as CZ are usually well versed in there rights. I'm sure the general public is not aware that the police cut the feed to all security cameras before the 1st raid, power was left on for everything else however. This was done so the police could abuse their power and there would be no proof just a bunch of so called drug-addicted losers trying to make noise for raiding their so called drug den. Police officers should not be concerned about being caught on camera if they're not doing anything against the law. They also robbed most patrons and staff members of their money (as little as $100.00) whether or not any other substance was found on that individual and furthermore they publicly humiliated the head bouncer by strip searching him in front of all the staff and half of the patron and proceeded by mocking his genitals and insured that all had a good look. This is disgusting behavior for police officers and unlawful to an individuals rights, however it's not the 1st time that 14th division behavior has been called into question.
I would remind the general public that if this kind of raid were to happen in any regular club downtown they would find more drugs and a crap load of weapons. I worry about getting hurt in regular clubs something I don't have to worry about at CZ as I know there are NO WEAPONS, RARELY ANY FIGHTS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT WOULD NEVER PUT THEIR OWN SELF INTEREST BEFORE A PATRON OR STAFF MEMBER SAFETY, PERIOD. Also this is not a pick up scene so you don't have to worry about getting groped too much which is nice for a girl.
CZ management or staff are in no way involved directly or indirectly with any illegal activity. There's a reason why this place has been open since the hippy days, it's a LEGAL ESTABLISHMENT. Go raid Guverment nightclub, all clubs on Richmond, strip club etc you'll find what you're looking for.
Zone has a reputation because it's been around for so long that's why it's so notorious.
I've never felt so terrified in my life.
I am attempting a lawsuit.
That is RIDICULOUS! The Horseshoe Tavern has been around a long time too and it is FAMOUS, not notorious. Now, don't get me wrong, i LOVE CZ. I hit up the Sunday morning party and enjoyed the excellent, DIRRTY beatz well into Monday evening many, many times but let's get real. If you've spent any time there at all you know that if you G out (i.e lapse into a sort of coma state after consuming to much GHB) you are not removed, you are simply moved to the side. Nobody watches you, that's it. The dealers are known, by patrons and staff, and tolerated. In any other club if a staff member saw you doing bumps of coke, k, or what have you openly at a table or on the dance floor they would kick you out. This is not the case at Zone. You could always get as fucked up as you wanted in there and it didn't have to be a secret, that was the point. That AND the incredibly awesome, filthy dirty beatz. I like to party and i like hard house but i think it's probably for the best that Zone is being cracked down on. Deko-ze and Sydney Blu (regular DJ's at CZ) spin on other nights, at other clubs, that are much less sketchy than the Zone. To be honest, I'm going to miss the anarchy of a CZ Sunday morning party, but these raids have sent a message. That place is now dangerous to hang out in, because the powers that be have decided it is. Drug dealers with guns, people who've been awake for four days, and G'd out girls unsupervised at a big party are all scary things. But 50 cops in riot gear with the security cameras cut is a lot scarier. So, i guess they win. I won't be going back to Zone again for a LONG time because it is officially HEAT. But the party is far from over. It's just in a new venue.
There I was, sitting on a chair guarding the stage as a bouncer in full uniform. Everything seemed calm. The customers were happy, dancing and buying drinks. The place was very clean; it seemed almost liked a perfect Sunday at the Comfort Zone, until 9:30am.
Six police officers barged in as a single unit and headed towards me. The officer in front had a shotgun aimed at my face as he walked towards me. Once he got in front of me, he dropped his aim. I was as stiff as a board. I was extremely terrified. I?ve never felt so frightened in my life. I felt like I was literally going to go into shock. The police ordered everyone to stay where they were, turn off the music and turn the lights on. Everyone was looking around, but everybody stayed where they were. I however, was too scared to even move my neck. My heart was racing so fast I almost felt like a heart attack was coming, or even an asthma attack. I had to use certain breathing techniques to calm myself.
The officer with the shotgun kept circling me. Other officers were going through jackets they found on the benches, asking whose jackets they were. In my foresight I saw them arrest a black male, and an Asian male. They kept searching the floor, but there was nothing. It was literally spotless, there wasn?t even any litter.
About 20 minutes later, they leave. The music goes back on, and the lights dim. The crowd screams and cheers in joy, as the party resumed. Everybody was happy, but I wasn?t.
I asked to be temporarily relieved because I was freaking out. I went upstairs and sat down for a while, trying to re-establish myself. My eyes kept spazzing. My muscles kept pulsing. My fingers kept twitching. I felt mentally impaired. I eventually resumed my post, but it wasn?t easy. I kept getting flashbacks of that shotgun, and every time I saw the sunlight glaring through a window, it reminded me of the flashlight attached to the shotgun which shined at my face for over 10 seconds.
Eventually, I asked if I could leave for work a bit early. Once I got home, I mentally broke down in tears. I couldn?t? sleep, I couldn?t? eat; I couldn?t even exert myself of my stool. After several hours of incoherence, I eventually passed out from exhaustion.
I have two witnesses, a fellow bouncer and a customer. They both saw the entire thing.
Why did the police come to me first? Why did that one officer aim the shotgun at my face and pursued me? I am not a suspect, I am a staff member. They did arrest an Asian male, and I am Asian. Could it be possible that at first glance, fitted the description of the suspect? Isn?t that racial profiling?
I don?t believe I deserved to have a shotgun pointed at my face and pursued when I was doing absolutely nothing. I wasn?t even moving, and I was in full CZ security uniform.
I don?t even think the police had a search warrant to execute what they did, let alone bringing a shotgun into the club. No one had weapons, there were no drugs on the floor and there was nothing happening that seemed abnormal.
I wish to take this incident to court. I am very afraid to work there after that incident. I am now terrified of the police and will never trust them ever again.
>I couldn?t? sleep, I couldn?t? eat; I couldn?t even exert myself of my stool. After several hours of incoherence, I eventually passed out from exhaustion
Slugzkea it sounds like you were coming off of something.
I also think you would have a better chance a getting EI than winning a lawsuit.
Reality with lawsuits is that if you have years and lots of money to throw at it then something may come of it. Unfortunately when a police officer is going into an address that is known to have drug activity weather it be a bunch of kids dancing or a biker clubhouse it is a high risk situation for them. The officer has to take precautions to protect himself.
Again Slug I hope this opens your eyes to the fact that there is a lot more opportunity out there, then working as a bouncer at a sleazy after-hours.
End of story.
This sort of thing just shows how it does not work. They went back a second time, in attempt to nab more patrons. This shows that while they can plan a raid, they can't plan on not getting what they want out of a raid.
It seems they should stick to doing raids on communities of violence instead. Better results seem to come from weapons charges and busting gangs, than from raiding afterhours clubs.
Racial profiling is when for example, the police stop random Asian people on the street because they believe that Asian people in the area deal drugs.
Seems similar but is actually quite different.
Again, do yourself a favour and do something else with your life.
Last time there were 33 arrests and close to 35k worth of drugs confiscated. This time there were 3 arrests. I'd say they got what they wanted out of the first raid. This is like parental re-enforcement.
It's also a totally separate issue than prohibition, it's about facilitation. If you own a business or a home and you are facilitating the use of drugs or any other crime you, yourself are committing a crime. Plain and simple.
Look at all the problems we have with alcohol.
The reality is that if caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, had not been around for a few thousand years then they would probably be illegal too.
The goal is to effectively shut the club down, it has been allowed to run for far too long. The only way they will do that is by having plainclothes officers in there all the time and raiding it repeatedly.
I will attempt the lawsuit. I know people that have successfully sued the police before for pointing guns and false arrests, so that brightens my situation.
What I am trying to tell you is that I have been in your shoes, and I now know that there is a better way.
Give your dopamine receptors a decent break (try not partying for 6 months straight), think about the bigger picture, talk to some people whose lives have been destroyed, and then try to convince me that kids should be allowed to take MDMA/Crystal/GHB at the CoZo because it's about the music.
Why are you tossing MDMA in with crystal meth and ketamine in with cocaine when, for example, MDMA and ketamine have both shown, rather recently even, to have enormous and unparalleled potential in scientific studies with regards to psychological/emotional therapy? Potential which has been suppressed heavily by being painted with those sort of always-oversized prohibitionist brushes, where anything that might be bad is entirely bad and anything that is bad must be outlawed using the most aggressive force the government is permitted against its own citizens.
Too much of the commentary on this post and the last struck me as almost sounding like "Let's use the ETF to aggressively bust graffiti artists, that way no gangs in the city will be able to communicate via secret wall codes any more!" People are saying very little about the negative impact of the substances they're discussing and a whole lot about the negative impact of those substances being restricted in our society to sh*tholes like the afterhours in question.
Despite a serious lack in research, it's been observed that artificially inducing the flooding of your brain with happy molecules every weekend has detrimental long term effects. I know a lot of people that feel the fun they had during their party days irreversibly affected their mental and physical health.
If you become a father one day, and your kid is on dubiously acquired chemicals, you'll be singing a different tune. When your kid experiences chemically induced highs so high that winning the baseball championship or getting an A on a school assignment no longer make the kid happy, you'll be singing a different tune.
Secondly as I have addressed in the past there is no controls in place at CZ. The meathead in the security shirt is not a doctor. The dosages are not measured and documented. In fact if anything goes wrong with a person (OD) they are quite hesitant to call EMS as it is a heat score.
The biggest flaw in your argument that the drugs have positive effects are that these studies have shown that one only has so much serotonin. When you are out, that's it you are out. It is naturally occurring in the body but the rate that MDMA releases the serotonin actually depletes the supply to the point that it is nearly impossible for the body to catch up in serotonin production as it is produced at such a low rate. According to research an individual is born with most of their lifetime supply, just to give you an idea of how slow the body produces serotonin. Too much serotonin release all at once can kill you as well.
There are mountains of research on the subject and it all points in the dame direction that recreational MDMA use has negative long term effects on the body.
I will even attest to that from personal experience.
There seemed to be a low level menacing vibe emanating from the place and people, and I wasn't on anything.
However, just because it's not my scene does that mean it should be considered a blight, as some are referring to it as.
People should have the right to go where they choose to feel comfortable.
Someone told me, and whether it's true or not isn't up to me say, is that it's the hotel above CZ where all the real action is taking place.
Maybe the TPS would be better off taking their war on illicit activities there, rather than scaring a bunch of people who just want to have some fun chilling the final hours of the weekend away.
There has never been and there will never be a drug free society. There are a lot of people who use drugs for the pleasurable experience. Drugs are not all bad. Actually, there is more crime and health care related costs associated with alcohol then any other drug in this country. Most people who use drugs are not all "Addicts" and harming our society. Why can we not have discussions around the use of drugs in a positive way. There are many famous individuals who lived fulfilling lives and used drugs... Sigmond Freud, Florence Nightengale, Queen Victoria, William S. Burroughs, Pablo Picasso,Lewis Carrol,Salivor Dali, Ben Franklin etc etc.
Those who are more chaotic users do not need to be arrested. These are health and social issues and having our police solve them is not the answer. The "War On Drugs" is a complete and utter failure. Look at the U.S with one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. They haven't even put a dent in getting drugs off their streets. It is not working.
The raids however bring up another point and that is arresting mostly drug users and "small time dealers", who are most likely also users. If this country really wants to " deal with the drug problem" then they need to go to the source. Organized Crime makes shitloads of money in this country... tax free. The drug trade is billions and yet we always go after the "low hanging fruit". Why ruin these peoples lives? Drugs may not be the evil we are told to believe but prohibition and the laws may be the source. If we can't even get drugs out of our prisons how will we ever get them off our streets and maybe just maybe we don't need to. Maybe it's the law that is causing more harm to the person. Maybe it's the law that creates the chaos in peoples lives...over what because they had some MDMA or a gram of weed or a .01 grams of cocaine. Not all drug use leads to destruction of the person or the need to criminalize them.
For good reading read this....
February 2008: Health Officers Council of British Columbia releases its paper, Regulation of Psychoactive Substances in Canada: Seeking a Coherent Public Health Approach: "Every year, psychoactive substances (alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs, and certain prescription drugs) cost Canadians over $40 billion. They are linked to more than 47,000 deaths and many thousands more injuries and disabilities. Inadequate, inappropriate, and ineffective regulation of these substances contributes in large measure to this terrible toll. Conversely, adequate, appropriate, and effective regulation holds great promise to protect public health and reduce this devastating situation
Having perpetual users/abusers push the talking points of legalizing drugs is like having meat eaters decide whether vegetarian restaurants' should exist.
Wha? Stimulants ARE psychoactive chemicals. You have no idea what you're talking about. Also, MDMA *is* a stimulant, and gas spectrometry and reagent tests reveal that Toronto's ecstasy is relatively pure.
> these studies have shown that one only has so much serotonin. When you are out, that's it you are out.
MYTH. Prove it.
> these studies
If you thought Dr. Ricaurte's studies linking MDMA with neurotoxicity were sound, think again:
http://www.mdma.net/toxicity/retraction.html
But I think we are missing the point here: it's about FREEDOM.
John Stuart Mill said, "...there should be different experiments of living ... and that the worth of different modes of life should be proved practically, when any one thinks fit to try them."
If somebody thinks that going to the Comfort Zone every Sunday will make them happy, they may be right! Why not let them try it? If somebody thinks taking ecstasy, K or GHB every weekend may make them happy, they may be right! Let them try it.
That is really the essence of freedom: a diversity of lifestyles so that people may decide what's right for them. Canada is supposed to be a free society, so why are people in favor of imposing draconian, moralistic restrictions on people's liberty?
Where do you draw the line? Would you also endorse the injecting of heroin at Toronto afterhours clubs? Freebase cocaine or crack use? Surely your "let them have the freedom to try it" argument has limits, no?
www.cfdp.ca/bchoc07.pdf
Actually, having drug users talk about the points of legalization makes a lot of sense. People who use drugs have a great amount of experience to offer on this issue. Many organizations around the world work with people who use drugs in creating policy. Drug user organizing has a long history and they have worked effectively at changing drug policy, law reform, harm reduction and advocacy for people who use drugs. Most Doctors that push for drug law reform, work with drugs users, on committees, in working groups developing strategies, documents and services. It's like having vegetarians decide if vegetarian restaurants should exist.
Clearly you are rationalizing your drug use and that's fine. However, propogating false information with scientific jargon attached to fulfil your ends is wrong. Don't mislead people by saying that 'toronto's ecstasy is relatively pure'.
How can you know that on a case by case basis? The fact is if you are not checking each dosage before popping you are trusting some low-life drug slinger with your health. Good luck with that.
You sound intelligent enough.. spend your time bettering your position - not poisioning it.
Good point you bring up: as a volunteer with the TRIP! project, I wish we could screen for adulterants with reagents like we could when I volunteered with Dancesafe. Currently the law prevents us from performing this valuable service during our outreach.
The process involves taking a scraping of the pill in question on a porcelain plate, returning the pill, putting a drop of chemical reagent on it, and checking the resulting colour against a colour chart under a bright, white light, giving the user valuable knowledge to better make decisions that affect their long-term health.
(Obviously none of this would be a problem if MDMA were legalized.)
>Surely your "let them have the freedom to try it" argument has limits
I do support establishing places for safe injection drug use to take place, but not in dark places because of the potential for infected blood to "go missing." Needle use in the dark can harm other people.
On a more on-topic note:
Any plans to protest the raids?
There has never been and there will never be a crime free society, do you propose that we should stop fighting crime? Who cares about the bank that just got robbed or the home invasion or the kidnapping or the rape or the pedophiles or the murder or drug addicts or drug dealers etc...... the list goes on and on but as you put it, we shouldn't bother fighting any of these crimes because we'll never achieve a crime free society? Are you high? I don't care if it's the drug user or the drug dealer that gets arrested. They all ought to be punished for illegal activity. Without dealers there won't be any (or hardly any)users and without users there won't be any demand.
Substance abuse is a lot more harming than you may think or believe. Disease will spread faster from sharing needles and having your inhibitions lowered causing many to have unprotected sexual interactions, not to mention the women and men who sell their bodies in order to cough up enough cash to support their bad habits. Murder rates go up because of gang/turf wars and too often innocent people get caught in the crossfire. It's a fact that STDs are on the rise and if we as a society continue this way it will be of epidemic proportions. You as a drug user may not be committing these more serious crimes but don't think for a second that you're not contributing to them by buying your drugs from criminals. Legalizing it won't help either. The disease risk, amongst other things is still there, even if it were controlled. Drugs of any amount or frequency are not safe to use and that's the bottom line. Kudos to the police for sending the message.
I was actually speaking more so about K than E, as it's gotten far less press as a valuable pharmaceutical beyond anaesthesia, largely because the research is only really breaking fairly recently. I just rolled them together because they've both shown promise and I felt ought to be pulled out of the crack/smack/meth pool.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5253800.stm
^ That's from 2006, I've got a much more recent paper pulling together research on the subject but it isn't published so I can't offer it here.
1. If the bouncer at the door was not presented with a search warrant it would seem that the police entered the premises illegally.
-I would encourage him to look into legal action as well as some form of trauma treatment such as EMDR- this might also be suggested to a number of last weeks patrons
2. I did speak with Adam Vaughan's office and I was told early in the week that there had been no compliants. I think this speaks less of how people felt about the raid, and more that people do not have a concept of proper channels to address their concerns and are afraid to take those actions. I expect a lot of people caught up in this raid where deeply traumatized.
3. No one has illusions that Comfort Zone is the most family friendly spot in town, but it is important to remember the role these places play. If we don't want people driving home intoxicated we need to provide spaces for them to go legally. Societies do not function without some form of release mechanism, at least they don't function well.
4. There has been very little suggestion that the death of this man in Hamilton was connected with drugs supplied at the Comfort Zone. The link has always seemed terribly tenuous and we can only assume this is not how it was presented to whatever judge granted the original warrant.
5. Has anyone seen that warrant? Has anyone examined the record of the judge who granted it? Is there a record of the information presented to get such a warrant?
6. Let us not loose sight of what initially happened;
The police raided a public space, People had rifles (semi-automatic weapons?) shoved in their faces, People were physically assualted by the police, People were forced to lie on the ground for an extended period of time and verbally abused, People in a public space who were not arrested were subjected to arbitrary searches-
-and no one seems to care-
Now magazine didn't even say anything other than to qoute the police-
-
so a warrant was granted due to an tenuous link to a man's death-
this warrant either did or did not allow-
police to assualt people in a public space-
and to arbitrarily search people who were not arrested-
and no one seems to care
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desoxyn
Just for sake of clarity. 1999 is 1999. 2008 is not 1999 and if they were to make the same documentary now you would see something much different.
The problem with places like CZ, Blak etc is that they are not raves. They are not all night dance parties. They are early morning sketch parties. It's easy to make conclusions after that as to their purpose. It's also easy for anyone who's never partied to assign raves and CZ the same value, which (IMHO) is a huge disservice to "The Scene".
Think of it this way:
- 33 arrests equals 30 thousand in drugs and 35 thousand dollars in proceeds.
- Of those 33 arrests let's say about 3 of them were non-drug related (things like prohibition breach).
- Of those 30 or so drug related arrests, 9 people were charged with a Possession proceeds drug offence (This would be the money that the police confiscated).
- 35 thousand dollars divided by 9 people = almost 4000.00 dollars each (and that's only an average).
- Those same 9 people were also the only ones charged with any trafficking offenses.
- So there is about 1 dealer for every 15 people there. That would be an alarmingly high number of dealers, even for a rave.
As someone that volunteers for TRIP (Nightmare always had your table present at the party, TRIP does amazing work btw!) I think it's a bit irresponsible of you to defend CZ in any way, shape or form. Everyone experienced enough in the scene knows that you can go to CZ to dump crappy pills or powder that you bought the night before. The inexperienced people in the scene only know you can go there to buy pills/powder at 8am on a Sunday. It also exposes a lot kids (yes, most of them ARE kids) to things like GHB which is VERY prevalent at CZ for both sale and use. GHB, the same b/s made from Caustic Solvents and epsom salt.
The very notion that CZ doesn't throw people out (or call an ambulance) for being "G'd out" (or overly messed up) sends the wrong message. The knee-jerk response is definitely "Well they are safer there if you let them stay". Obviously there is truth to this, but it's only because CZ has created the problem in the first place by allowing people to stay, causing more people to feel comfortable to do what they want, causing more dealers to show up with harsher drugs. And the beat goes on...
You will actually probably find it much more frustrating to find any credible study that can prove your point about serotonin levels and exstasy.
To me it's scarier that either side has yet to prove their point. Unfortunately I think the medical community has also realized that the late 90's and early 00's have given them enough research subjects for a future study that they won't have to run ads in NOW and pay people 150 dollars to participate in them.
http://www.camh.net/Publications/Resources_for_Professionals/Alcohol_and_Drug_Problems/adp_preface.html
I got that particular info from the above referenced book.
Great book lots of really good stuff in there properly referenced.
I thought you were such a tuff guy..
What happened???? You kept telling everyone when CZ was busted last week that the young man that died was a wimp.,.and idiot etc ..WITH NO REMORSE ON YOUR PART!
NOW YOU WANT OUR SYMPATHY FOR THE TERROR YOU EXPERIENCED BY HAVING A GUN POINTED AT YOU???
WHAT ABOUT THE TERROR THOSE PARENTS FELT WHEN THEY SOUND OUT THERE KID WAS DEAD???
Also, as a TRIP! volunteer all I can do is offer my observations from working there. I have never actually gone to CZ to party, just to hand out supplies for members of the community.
However, these raids will end up amounting to nothing more than a culture war. It is disgraceful for the police to be targeting a non-violent community to the point of extinction. You are right to say it is not a "rave club," in fact there is no such thing. That the media have been using the word "rave" so extensively means there could be some serious fallout for the organizers of actual raves.
There will be a segment on 96.6 FM tomorrow about this conversation, actually!
they can say they confiscated however much drugs and money they want but i wouldn't trust the methods or the morality of the force...i have heard of the corruption that goes on during raids by a former drug unit officer....entering facilities prior to having a warrant, ommision of cash and drugs found to be distributed among those in the loop on the drug squad, having to be careful of those who worked on surveillence on the squad because usually these are tech "geeks" who are not or less likely experienced with drugs and are likely less corrupt, planting of drugs on suspects who were arrested by racial profiling when nothing was found on that person...
let me tell you something....you catch drug guys with other drug guys...not with people who don't do drugs. Only difference is one gang is on the right side of the law, the activities of the drug police mirror those whom they are trying to bring down...it's scary...
Kevin,
That is exactly my point. It's not like 'ravers' are doing anything to help themselves be disenfranchised from places like CZ. So the media shows up and sees a bunch of 'ravers' hanging out listening to 'rave music' what other conclusions are they going to come to?
If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck...
When I was and if I was still a 'raver' I would do my best to NOT go to sketchy little shit holes like CZ or Blak to not negatively affect the scene I apparently love.
I am trying to gather some information about the current raids @ The Comfort Zone.
I personally have been harrassed by Torontos "finest" in the past, while leaving the CoZo and hoping people are not afraid to make their voices heard.
I don't think guilty by association applys when you are in a public venue, private setting maybe you have an argument.
I hope people still attend the zone just be aware of your surroundings and party responsibly.
Judging from the attention the police services has brought to themselves in a scene where they should be fighting for respect they just lost whatever little bit they had.
I love how selective the police services have been with information provided to the media. There is no mention that the 26yr old who passed away was himself a drug dealer/user who was responsible for his own actions. SURELY the Toronto Police Services knew that.
Easier for a family to put blame somewhere other than themselves I guess.
I'm not saying i'm a saint but I have never purchased drugs while @ the cozo never consumed drugs there. Usually I just go there to wear off whatever I took the night before from ANOTHER CLUB.
Sure there is drug sales there just like every other popular club in Toronto but rarely is there ever violence.
So you are left with a choice deal with drugs / stabbings / guns / fights which is entertainment dist.... or you go to zone hang out with generally harmless people.
Also I love how the entertainment mags - papers in Toronto for years have wrote positive articles on the Comfort Zone and now only publishing all the negatives.... giving one side.. and not of the community they are catering to.
People desevere to be treated as people regardless.
http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080331.wrrabbit31/BNStory/Business/home
Looks like one of the victims of the raid was a hedge fund broker. Read the article and two things become clear...
1) A lot of the commentators in this thread (and the first one) are under the assumption that anyone who goes to the Comfort Zone is a loser with no life. This guy made 2 millions dollars last year, so obviously it's possible to enjoy dancing at 5am on a Sunday and still be productive throughout the week and get things done.
2) Cops deserve the "pigs" appellation. This guy was charged for trafficking, but it's obvious that was not his intent. An undercover cop approached him and asked him to get her some cocaine. So he goes and buys it off someone else, then gives it to her. When she tries to give him some money, he refuses. She insists, puts the money in his hand and bam! he's busted. Those are some real sleazeball tactics Metro's Finest are employing. It's not like this guy was hanging out in schoolyards selling crack to little kids - he was asked to get some coke by a fellow partier, and he generously offered it to her as a gift.
I don't think the police should be attacking CZ. It's eventually hurt the business, that's the whole point but that isn't right.
I've been there once, not really my scene..the patrons are a bit strange but the music is good and i agree with those who say it's safer than a regular club. No groping annoying men chasing tail, everyone is doing their own thing. Plus i think it's great because since alcohol isn't served NO ONE DRIVES HOME DRUNK. If the police want to be more useful maybe they need to get on the establishments the serve alcohol, and crack down on drunk drivers all year round and not just during the holidays.
I'm not heartless, i feel bad for the parents because i'm sure they thought they did a good job raising their son and they probably did...people do dumb things regardless
This attack on CZ needs to stop
If your son/daughter/sibling died of a drug overdose at a drug hole like CZ im sure you would cry aswell
Although I was not present as I now live in the United States, there were a number of troublesome issues that arose from what happened.
First, the raid was the result of an overdose that took place back in January. The individual in question apparently had been up since Friday and apparently stopped in at the CZ on Sunday. During this time, we was taking numerous drugs and apparently returned to his home in Burlington before he overdosed on GHB. The CZ was then targeted during this raid because of the overdose. The raid effectively assigns liability for his death to the CZ rather than himself. Why wasn't every other estabishment that he frequented that weekend (which were some well known much larger nightclubs) also targeted in the raid since his overdose was a cumulative effect of staying up the entire weekend? Isn't he liable or his own death because he made the decision injest copious quantities of drugs?
What the raid effectively did was assign liability to those 100-150 individuals that were unfortunate enough to be manhandled by the police face down on the floor and processed over the course of 3 hours, when none of those individuals probably had anything to do with this guy as he did not frequent the CZ on a regular basis and was known to hang out at other estabishments. This raid does nothing to prevent future overdoses, as a drug seeker would have gone elsewhere and found the drugs anyway.
The negatives personal/ professional effects that the raid will have on those individuals that got caught in it far outweight any long term benefits on criminal activity that will result. No guns were found, and little in the way of any weapons were found. Note that not everyone that comes here is a drug dealer or user, there are many such as myself that have successful careers and professional responsibilities but choose to get away and "enjoy the music" as they say for a few hours once every few months. It is my feeling that a similar surprise raid at any other nightclub would have yielded similar or greater magnitude of arrests. Given the news reports of violent crime throughout the city, perhaps a prioritization of issues by the Police Department would yield greater results in protecting the public safety.
Furthermore, it does not make sense to fight a drug war by targeting such a petty establishment. If you want to fight a drug war, why not go to the source? For example, many of the precursors that make GHB and ecstasy are easily attainable in Canada. They are not in the U.S. GHB is hard to find the U.S. anymore and there is little domestic ecstasy production. So why are these precursors attainable in Canada (via importation from foreign countries)? If you ask me, the drug trade is enabled because of this. This is not the Comfort Zone's fault.
But there is one more thing you have to consider. When you try to fight certain drugs, others take their place. Its called a substitution effect in economics. If you take a look at GHB or ectasy, you will see that they are ranked very low on a recently released scientific study on harmful effects (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6474053.stm). When you take those drugs away, such as what has been done here in the U.S., more harmful ones tend to take their place. There are severe problems here with many prescription drugs such as Oxy as well as more traditional illegal drugs such as heroin (Baltimore, MD is the heroin capital of the world) and crystal meth (see desert southwest of the U.S.).
Finally note that CZ has recently become a worldwide brand. People that are involved in music, whether in Ibiza or South America, or familiar with the establishment. People come from Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo to visit the unique qualities that Toronto has to offer. My wife and I have made numerous trips to Toronto and have spent copious quantities on money over the years on restaurants, hotels, entertainment, etc. Any attempts at sterilization (especially in today's age of social and political correctedness-puke)of the city by ridding it of so called "nuisance establishments" or altogether closing down the entertainment district as has been proposed does the city no good in my eyes. If you want to see what sterillization of cities combined with U.S. style law enforcement that targets the little guy, you only have to look towards Detroit, Cleveland, or Buffalo (add a bunch of condos) to see what the future has to offer.
I also wanted to note that here in Ohio, a citizens group recently put forth a bill in the house which passed which limits all adult entertainment- dancers and customers must never have contact (3 ft rule?) and all nude entertainment must stop by midnight (ie pasties). The result, here in C-town? Customers have disappeared, a few clubs have closed, dancers make no money. To make up for the loss of income, they are doing private booze parties that roam throughout the city every weekend. These are unregulated and put the dancers at great risk.
The same thing will happen in Toronto to the "scene" as they call it. You drive it underground, and it makes it dangerous for everyone, especially women. At least over the years, the CZ could be monitored. Given the few incidents it has had over the years (there have been a few as pointed out by an angry poster in the last article about the first raid), I would say it has a fairly good track record.
For everyone who has a problem with people that use illegal drugs you should know that many illegal drugs (like heroin) are very similar to legal drugs. In fact, most prescription drugs come from exactly the same place and are made of the same ingredients as illegal ones.
I make this point because everyone reading this blog probably knows somebody that is taking a legal drug very similar to heroin. They don't tell kids at school this, and people grow up thinking that (illegal) drug users are bad people, leading some people to believe that drug users and people with substance abuse problems are bad and need to be put in prison.
Illegal drug use (and abuse) happens for a number of reasons (i.e. brain chemistry, personal behaviour). It would cost less to treat drug abuse as a medial problem and not a criminal one. It would also help the person or people affected by substance abuse a lot more.
These aren't so much my opinions ads they are facts. Talk to (addiction) doctors, social workers, the wonderful folks at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and (heads of) police. They will all tell you the same story.
Or is there another designated day for other fucked up drugs?
Hopelessly naive. Do you honestly think an addict ? and let?s not fool ourselves because crack use WILL eventually lead to addiction - is going to be inclined to purchase "high-quality cocaine nasal spray?" Hell no, they?ll go for whatever?s cheapest. There's plenty of high-end quality booze available and yet some people still prefer to chug Listerine.
Kevin, I?d love to see you look into the eyes of someone who?s lost a loved one to the horrors of drug addiction and tell them the police were wrong for cracking down on drug dealers. Your knee-jerk anti-police sentiments are misplaced.
While you?re at it, check out the Globe & Mail?s documentary on Raven and Jason, two addicts struggling on the streets of Vancouver. Pay special attention to the part where Raven says they had been clean for a while but found themselves lured back into drug use because some well-meaning but effing clueless outreach worker gave them a crack kit.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/ravenandjason
So I thank CZ for being so sketchy that I never wanted to go back.
The fact is that while the police may have been wrong to be heavy handed with the patrons, the club itself profits off the illegal drug trade. Who are we kidding here? No one goes to CZ at 10AM on a Sunday because they really love house music.
I am not says that drugs are good and alcohol is bad, because nowadays I do no drugs, and I do drink a couple of glasses of wine now and then, and it's all good. But I don't know why some people are so anti- Comfort Zone. How is this affecting you? I haven't lost of any of my friends to drugs (though I have known a lot of people who have taken drugs), but I have lost one of my friends because of an idiot drunk driver. From my personal experience, I feel that there is more of a chance that your life will be negatively impacted by a club-goer than a CZ-goer.
There is only one reason why drugs are illegal. The government can make more money by attempting to dismantle a supply and demand funnel that they themselves create. From policing to prosecuting to jailhouse construction and backroom deals, governments are the biggest drug pushers on the planet.
On further thought I am not surprised given the effect the CZ Scene has had on many people. I have a been there a few times but luckily when I was in my mid 20s so I could have some perspective as opposed to being 19 and partying... not sure how I would have ended up -
A couple of points:
* The music was great, cutting edge and raw you can dance to it with or with out 'happy pills' There was an energy to the music that is not at Gov, Systems, and other night clubs that draw the the same type of 'influences'
* The scene had some very ugly truths to it however - everyone who has been there can describe stories and I do not need to share mine
* It was fun, people were generally cool, and I met some interesting people, some dangerous ones and some who were completely lost.
The above being stated it is a good thing that we (society as a whole) control/ crackdown on such places. There is too much of a draw to people who may have other needs (social, chemical) etc that will not allow them to control themselves and their behaviours.
Happy to review comments,