by MIREILLE SILCOTT

Just over one year ago, I wrote a column for the Mirror titled "What the Hell is GHB?," explaining a bit about a novel club drug that was beginning to pierce Montreal's night scene and clog up the galleys and programming boards of American media.

In the 13 months since that brief article, I have been asked to do no less than 12 interviews on the topic for various media. I went on national TV five times, and was pitted against doctors and social worker-types four times. The other national interview I gave was spliced with that of a grieving family whose daughter was in a coma.

I won't say that I was directly demonized, but by association, and through the mounting incrimination of GHB by the mainstream media, I was certainly made a bit devilish. "Are you a cheerleader for drugs?" one host asked me. "No," I answered, "but I think that open circulation of information about things that many people do is important."

I'm not an "expert" on drugs, and only the desperate cubbyholing of television could ever tag me as such. I am not a chemist or a doctor or a sociologist, nor am I, as the aforementioned host inferred, some saucer-eyed addict. I just happen to think that certain drugs have contributed positively to the culture of the clubs. And I'm honest about the fact that I've never written subjectively about one that I haven't tried myself.

So this article doesn't start off in a hospital waiting room or with a headline asking "Do you know where your children are?" This is a piece about people who have realized that drugs are an inescapable, if not important, aspect of clubland. People who have seen the benefits and the problems that surround mind-altering substances. Who know that millions are taking pills as an adjunct to fun every weekend, and have set about educating people on this matter.

Jaape Kappers is 26 years old and lives in Amsterdam. During the week he works in an office, and on the weekends he often goes to parties or raves. The office he works in houses bags and bags of illegal substances. It is called the Adviesburo August de Loor, named after the man who founded it in 1986. It's better known as Amsterdam's Safe House Project, a government-sanctioned (although officially illegal) bureau.

Jaape and his co-workers test street drugs. People bring in their pills--usually stuff sold as Ecstasy (MDMA)--and for about $2.50, the Adviesburo workers will tell them exactly what's in them. On the weekends, the Adviesburo team can be found behind a booth at the bigger raves around Amsterdam, sometimes at the insistence of the police or by invitation from the rave's promoters.

"Basically, what we do is monitor the drug markets. And with that information you can do a lot," says Jaape on the telephone from his home. "In reality, there's only one Ecstasy, and that's MDMA. But there are other substances put into tablets which are sold as Ecstasy, which can give a very different effect."

When a particularly bad batch of Ecstasy or any other drug is spotted by the Adviesburo, they will immediately print flyers detailing what the pill looks like, what's in it and its dangers. Once or twice a year, they have been known to go on the loudspeakers at raves when substances like these are found. However, they will never tell people if their drugs are "good."

"Everyone reacts differently, so we can only say what's in it. But if somebody buys what they think is Ecstasy and their pill turns out to be a dose of, say, amphetamines, it isn't what they wanted. Usually, they will throw it on the floor and crush it."

Although there is a plethora of drugs found on the club circuit today, Ecstasy is still by far the most popular everywhere. The drug was first patented in 1913 by German pharmaceutical company Merck, intended as a slimming pill, but never marketed. The U.S. army dabbled with its uses (they may have tried it as a "truth" drug) in the '50s, but its psychedelic properties were truly discovered by a brilliant hippy-dippy chemist named Alexander Shulgin, who worked for Dow in California. In 1977 Shulgin began publishing papers on the miraculous empathetic and explorative effects of the drug (in the same year the drug was banned in the U.K. The U.S. made it a Schedule 1 drug--a drug with supposedly no medical or therapeutic uses--in 1984).

MDMA found itself into the gay nightclub circuit not long after Shulgin's papers, most commonly under the name Adam. But its largest history as far as clubs go began in 1987, when the substance reached England from the clubber's holiday island of Ibiza. It is no understatement to say that Ecstasy effectively started the scene called acid house at nightclubs like Manchester's Hacienda as much as the house music then being imported from America did. By about 1988, the acid scene became known as the rave scene.

But while some Ecstasy-heads have argued that "E is a way of life," it is far from a day-to-day drug in the way that coke or heroin can be. That's to say, the habits of traditional clubland users have been to take it for events or "big" nights in clubs, for dancing and socializing, and not as an everyday crutch. This philosophy toward drug-taking has since moved on to other drugs--strangely, often drugs quite inappropriate to dance-clubbing, like the frightfully hallucinogenic and introverted Ketamine ("Special K"), and sedatives like Rohypnol ("Ruffies") or the very popular GHB.

But the demonization of Ecstasy has been the drug's most obvious legacy. When E hit Britain's clubs, its usage was not something hidden by clubbers, who instead boasted of their chemical initiation into the new, cool subculture of rave. A blast of "dance of death" articles, particularly in the U.K. press, thus began in the late '80s. And have not stopped. Every Ecstasy-related death since (the most recent being the cover-story death of England's Leah Betts, an 18-year-old who over-hydrated herself by drinking too much water on E) has made slow-news days much quicker business for the London tabloids and beyond.

Yet the fact remains that given how many millions have done Ecstasy, the reported death rate (a fraction of 1 per cent) has been low. And the secondary casualties, things like fist-fights or accidents, have been minor when compared to aggressive drugs like alcohol, or even certain over-the-counter antihistamines. But as is the case with most substances taken for pleasure rather than pain (Prozak is also a "happy pill," but is gladly dispensed as therapeutic by doctors), and as is certainly the case with things that cut into established institutions like the alcohol industry (youth pub-going in England has dropped 30 per cent since 1988), the media has opted for an often deliberate misinterpretation of Ecstasy users--inevitably putting them in the same slots as crackheads and criminals.

Which, in my opinion, has only caused harm. Leah Betts may not have watered herself to death if the club she visited had something like the Adviesburo booth there. And this year's death of one teenage Westmounter after visiting a Montreal afterhours club could have possibly been prevented, if it had been normal and easy for her to get information about the dos and don'ts of chemical ingestion (she ingested the particularly dangerous combo of GHB and cocaine). Add this to the fact that the drug market, because it is a black market, is a dirty, dirty field, with monstrous cocktails of everything from animal tranquillizers to dangerously high doses of substances like amphetamines or MDA (tempestuously speedy in large doses) being sold as "Ecstasy." It's truly amazing that no massive effort for accessible testing and information has been undertaken more widely.

In Montreal, little seeds of safety are being sown, most obviously by the makers of the annual Black & Blue circuit party, the BBCM. At the Black & Blue in 1996, founder Robert Vézina estimates that approximately 30 people had to be taken away in ambulance because they had ingested GHB with other substances. GHB, something still used as an anaesthetic in Europe, is the perfect example of a Jekyll-&-Hyde drug. On its own, it has a very low toxicity. It gives a pleasurable, euphoric feeling in lower doses and induces deep sleep in higher ones. When mixed, however, especially with alcohol, it can be lethal (every GHB death to date has been a case of mixing the drug with other substances, something often misreported by both doctors and the media).

"This year, after what we saw with GHB the year before, we started putting up signs at our Gay Pride parties warning people about the drug," says Vézina. "And you know what? We didn't have a single ambulance case at Gay Pride. Not one. And this year, at the 1997 Black & Blue, we only had two ambulance cases for people who misused, out of 11,000 people present. So our program did work."

This year at the Black & Blue, the BBCM had two first-aid sections, a sprawling team of private nurses and doctors with knowledge about street drugs ("some who do drugs themselves"), roaming security "scouts" looking for people in trouble, an accessible info booth about substances ranging from Ketamine to poppers, and printed messages about taking drugs safely.

They have done what they could, given the policy in our city. Police in Amsterdam may turn a blind eye about the legality of testing drugs at parties, but Montreal's fuzz seem to still think "banning" drugs at the door will obliterate any usage.

"That does not work, obviously," says Vézina. "So we take it as our role of educating the individual."

Vézina and other promoters and club owners in Montreal, like Storm's Patrick Legendre, have all expressed interest in bringing drug testing into their establishments. But they all say, given the attitude of the police and government, the effort for initiation of this idea has to be made by outside forces, and not the clubs themselves. Anyone with interest in bringing accessible club testing to Montreal can e-mail me at mireillesilcott@babylon.montreal.qc.ca with any suggestions. Because people won't stop doing drugs. But they can stop doing them dangerously.

Some other drugs popular in clubs now

Amphetamine (Speed, Whizz), Methamphetamine (Crystal Meth, Ice, Speed) The use of Speed has risen dramatically in Montreal in the past three years, given shortages of "real" Ecstasy. Amphetamine usually lasts eight hours, boosts energy and thus is popular on the younger rave scene. Usually sold as pills and sometimes as powder, it is often marketed with candy-type names like "Strawberries" or "Peaches." Metamphetamine is highly toxic over 25mg, comes in "rock" form, is heated and inhaled. Both are highly addictive and can render users violent.

Ketamine (Special K, K, Ketalar) While it usually induces a certain floppiness, K has been called the "nightmare drug" by certain users, as it causes a disassociation between mind and body which can result in experiences that feel like "near-death" or "out of body." Presently very popular on the local gay scene. A strange addition to the clubscape, as it does not promote sociability or dancing. It is snorted, taken in pills or injected. Can be physically addictive.

Ephedrine (Eff) Ephedrine gained popularity in Montreal with the birth of the rave scene in 1992. It is often taken along with Ecstasy. Found in certain over-the-counter antihistamines like Sudafed, a dosage of 180mg will give an effect similar to speed. Increases heart rate, can cause uncomfortable edginess and headache. Lasts four to five hours.

2CB Just trickling into the Montreal market now, through smaller, independent dealers. 2CB is a mild psychedelic that has been likened to a cross between E and LSD. Highly dose-sensitive, and over 25mg can bring an uncomfortable jumpiness. Usually comes in pill form. Sold in the U.K. as a male "impotency cure."

Rohypnol (Ruffies, Rophies, Party Poppers) Rohypnol, an anaesthetic, has recently gotten lots of hypey press as the notorious "date rape" drug, dropped into the drinks of females at parties. Small doses can break down inhibitions and give a feeling of euphoria. Higher doses can cause amnesia, loss of short-term memory and loss of consciousness. The knock-out "date rape" phenomena seems more abundant in the Southern U.S. than anywhere else.

" Robo" "Robo" has the same composition as the cough medicine Robutussin or Vick's 44 when taken in high dosages. It has a dedicated niche market. According to one local fan, " Robo" is good because "it makes you feel weird and see weird things."