Know a lot about safer partying? Want to learn? Want to educate others and volunteer at parties? Get involved with TRIP!

The TRIP! volunteer training involves a 7-day training course (spread across 4 weeks on Wednesdays from 6-9pm and Saturdays from 12pm-6pm)  which features workshops on various topics related to harm reduction, HIV prevention, sexual health and safer partying. These trainings are offered twice a year, and the next training will be starting in April 2010!

To be eligible for our volunteer program you must:

• be between the ages of 16-30
• be a former or current participant in Toronto's dance music scene
• be able to attend all trainings (all of which occur in downtown Toronto)
  
• jive with our harm reduction philosophy
• have a fun and open attitude, a willingness to learn, and be able to contribute time and energy to the project on a regular basis
  

To indicate your interest in being trained, contact TRIP! by calling 416-703-8482x125, emailing info@tripproject.ca or using our online contact form.

On January 30th 2010 at 9pm, the big purple building on the corner that was once referred to by some as "Crack and Pizza", will open it's doors one last time for Nocturnal Commission's and Embedded's Good to The Last Bop. For the past three decades, The Big Bop has been host to a variety of events catering to youth of all subcultures from punk, ska and goth to being Toronto's most notorious rave venue. To many, the close of the complex comes as sad news. As one of the few well known all-ages event spaces in city some argue that there will certainly be a decrease in the already limited number of all-ages parties. However many such as myself have seen the close as a kind of blessing and as the possibility of a re renewal in the search for new, cleaner, more positive feeling spaces for parties. There is nothing like the feeling that freshness brings. Instead of a loss to the nightlife community the close should be seen as a new era. The scene has changed over they years and it should be expected that change should take place in all areas.

We all have our favorite Big Bop memories. From talking for hours with our friends in the washroom, telling our moms we were sleeping at friends house while trying not to fall off of the fire escape, drinking until the sun came up and even having sex for some of us (See: i had sex at big bop Facebook group). Some of us made friends or got to know the friends we had even better. Others, for the first time, were able to express themselves in a way that they weren't comfortable doing in another environment. Hearts were broken and mended and cell phones were lost and found.  So as we gather there for one last time on January 30th we should be reminded that the parties made it the place it was, and not the place that made the parties what they were.

We will miss the Big Bop!

<3Sara.

Dealers rip you off by cutting your coke and crack with crap like powdered milk, heart meds & talcum powder. These days manufacturers are cutting it at source with an animal de-wormer called LEVAMISOLE, which can KILL your immune system. Symptoms include high fever, swollen glands, dead / darkened skin, & sores / infections that won't go away or get worse quickly. If you experience any of these symptoms, seek medical help now!

Coke. Anything but the real thing.

For more info:

www.levamicoke.info

Erowid Cocaine Vaults : Cocaine Adulterated with Levamisole on the Rise

The most useful plant on earth! The devil weed! Cannabis (a.k.a. pot, marijuana, weed, herb, bhang, ganja, grass, dagga, keif, kanabosm, asa, reefer, tai-ma or its innumerable other names) is one of the most charged words in our language for it represents what is arguably the most controversial plant of modern times. The very utterance of its name can arouse a full range of emotion and passion from hate to love, fear to bliss and all points in between. Indeed a visitor to our world might be very confused as to all the fuss over this seemingly benign, spindly and unassuming herb. Yet its physical humbleness masks the great influence this plant has had on human psyche and society - to such a degree that people have even pledged their lives to its propagation or eradication.

Check out our new interactive online exploration of cannabis! 

Drugs, drugs, drugs... take this survey and tell us what you've done! The TRIP! Project's own volunteer Leanne WIlkins is undertaking her masters research in cognitive neuroscience and is looking to see the effects of various drugs on the mind. It's 100% confidential so fill it out today! Note that the survey does take time so make sure you have some set aside. Be sure to read the consent form so you know the benifits and risks of participating.

Take the survey today!

Found from DanceSafe
E-News Issue No. 4

February 1-7, 2001
Interview by Jane Tseng, DanceSafe

The Toronto Raver Info Project (TRIP) is a community based peer education and harm reduction group in Toronto, Canada. TRIP was founded approximately five years ago and works out of Queen West Health Center. They have established themselves as experts in health issues surrounding the late night dance music scene in Toronto through their community forums and booth outreach services at events. In light of recent events in New Orleans, E-News talked with Erin Lewis, Project Director of TRIP about how they worked with city officials and the rave community a year and a half ago when the city of Toronto placed a ban on raves.

E-News: How would you compare the recent events surrounding raves in the United States to the government crackdown on
raves in Toronto last year?

Lewis: There are a lot of things that are very familiar, they sound very much like what was going on here in Toronto last year. The city was saying that raves are warehouses of sin. There was story in the newspaper wherethey took pictures of ecstasy pills and put them next to a table full of guns, saying that all of these drugs and these guns were confiscated at raves, when the reality is that there has never been a gun found out a rave in Toronto. They really sort of played up on the hazards of the environment saying that there weren't any washrooms and people were filling their water bottles up out of toilets and things like that. In response, what they did was ban raves off of the city's property, because the city doesn't support this kind of behavior. They said "You can't have anything there, because your parties are too dangerous". The problem was that the city property, the exhibition grounds in Toronto, is the most safe environment for large gatherings of people, because that is what it was built for. It is adequately zoned, it has exits, hundreds of toilets, running water, and its own security.

E-News: How did the ban on raves and the negative public attention on the rave scene affect the harm reduction work that TRIP does?

Lewis: Trip actually had to sit through this inquest into the death of a guy who died on ecstasy a year and a half ago at a party. We went through having our information out there on trial...having all of these powerful people from the city pulling apart everything in our information, telling us, "You're promoting drug use." They were saying that information like ours contributed to his death, and that we were making people want to use drugs. That was absolute hell. But we're still kicking, right?

E-News: What steps did TRIP and the community take to react to the government crackdown?

Lewis: We did a lot as TRIP and the Toronto Dance Safety Committee, whose chair was the project manager of TRIP at that time. The Party People Project, which is a community activism project that started out of one of TRIP's community forums, is a group of about 150 people from the rave community in Toronto that also happened to be politically active. They were also very loud and very political. They took every measure to fight the government in the crackdown and really worked to mobilize themselves. When the city government was deciding whether or not to keep the ban in place, the Party People Project and the Toronto Dance Safety Committee put together a huge information package and an accompanying video that really went in depth to dispel all of these myths about the community. They did a lot of political lobbying. One of the things that we did was to organize a large rally at city hall and we were able to pull together about 20,000 people for
that. We had say "Hey, we're here, and we dance, and its not just ravers that you would be shutting down through this crackdown".

E-News: Did the rave community enlist the support of any other organizations?

Lewis: The way that everything was worded in this government crackdown meant that if they were going to be banning raves, they would be banning a number of large exhibitions through the city, a number of multi-cultural festivals, the gay pride ball, and things like that. It really alarmed a number of other communities as well. We really worked to get their support, and to help to fight this.

E-News: When the city lifted the ban on raves, did the govornment create more regulations on how parties would be thrown?

Lewis: The protocols for safer dance events was initially carried out by the Toronto Dance Safety Committee, which is affiliated with TRIP. We were very closely involved in writing that protocols and working with the city to find some room for agreement. The police force, and the city of Toronto, and the media were really working together on this to shut down the scene and there are a lot of residual affects from that. There are a lot of protocals in place that make it really hard for people to throw parties in Toronto. It has caused a lot of division among the rave community. People started finger-pointing. Who wants to work with the city on something as sacred as your dance floor? We shouldn't be in this situation anyway. But unfortunately, we had no choice. All of these promoters in the city and all of the party kids in the city could get busted if we hadn't worked with the city to find some common ground. The biggest fight around that was to define what constitutes a rave, and what constitutes a raver. That was a really tough one to define. We had to be very choosy with our words, and very careful as to how we would define a rave, so that other groups that throw events that aren't necessarily raves, wouldn't fall into the same sort of situation.

E-News: What experience or advice can you give on how to deal with a situation where your community is being unfairly targeted?

Lewis: You have to be really proactive. You have to say, "we're going to fight this, we're going to win."

Teva Animal Health, Inc.
expands a voluntary nationwide recall of Ketamine Hydrochloride
Injection, USP CIII 100mg/mL in 10mL vials

Contact:
Denise Bradley
Tel: 215-591-8974 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- December 21, 2009 - Teva
Animal Health, Inc. is expanding a nationwide voluntary recall of
Ketamine Hydrochloride Injection, USP CIII 100mg/mL in 10mL vials for
all lot numbers within their expiration dates to the Veterinary Level. 
This product had previously been recalled to the distributor level and
is being expanded as a result of an increased trend in serious adverse
events associated with this product.

Veterinarians who have this product in their possession are
instructed to cease using the product immediately and return it to
their distributor.

Ketamine Hydrochloride is a rapid acting, non-narcotic,
non-barbiturate agent for anesthetic use in cats and for restraint in
subhuman primates. This recall is being conducted as a result of an
increased trend in serious adverse events associated with this product,
including lack of effect, prolonged effect, and death and involves all
lot numbers within expiration.

Teva Animal Health, Inc is voluntarily recalling the aforementioned product. The FDA has been apprised of this action.

Consumers with questions may contact 800-759-3664 from 8:00am – 5:00pm CST Monday-Friday.

 More information here with complete list of brand recall.

Empower: Youth, Arts, and HIV/AIDS Activism
Launch Party!

Check out Drag Performances,
Interactive Panel Discussions, Fashion,
Visual Art Exhibitions, Discussion Panels, and Sexy Safer Sex Information! Come
out to an interactive, action-packed World AIDS Day event with performances,
exhibitions and discussions by local youth activists and educators,
service providers and community organizers. This is a Queer Positive
space.

This FREE interactive symposium will
launch "Empower: Youth, Arts and
Activism: An HIV/AIDS Activism Manual for Youth by Youth." For more
information on the manual, see below.

Performances, Exhibition and Discussion by:

• Kim Simard, Prise Positive
• Jay, Romeo and Company, sprOUT, Griffin Centre
• Nidhi Punyarthi, Gendering Adolescent AIDS Prevention
• Jessica Yee, Native Youth Sexual Health Network
• Jessica Whitbread, No Pants No Problem Party Organizer
• Henry Luyombya, Peer Educator, Planned Parenthood
  Positive Prevention
• Jenn Yee, Visual Artist
• Lulu Gurney and Aaron Chan, Youth CO
• David Lewis-Peart, Mary Yehdego, and Shani Robertson,
  Black-CAP

More to Come!

Everyone is welcome. Snacks & Refreshments
Provided. Guests will
receive a free copy of the manual upon arrival.
For questions or more information, please contact cuhi.admin@utoronto.ca

EVENT DETAILS:

Date: November, 26, 2009
Time: 6:00 - 9:00pm
Place: William Doo Auditorium*,
New College, University of Toronto.
45 Willcocks
(SW Corner of Willcocks and Spadina. Closest Subway Station: Spadina)

* Wheelchair accessible.

*** The launch will be preceded by a
talk by Dr. Jessica Fields
(Sociology, City University of New York), "Under Lock and Key: Sex
Education and the Effort to Prevent and Protect", as well as a
networking reception. These events are organized as part of the Youth
Sexual Health RIG.

Event date/time: November 26, 2009
4:00 - 5:30: Dr. Jessica Fields talk - Women and Gender Studies
Lounge, 2nd Floor Wilson Hall Residence (20 Willcocks)
5:30 - 6:00: Networking Reception
6:00-9:00: Manual Launch & Symposium - William Doo Auditorium (45
Willcocks)

Empower: Youth, Arts, and Activism

The manual, Empower: Youth, Arts, and
Activism, is designed for youth
by youth, and features a diverse range of projects put forward by
passionate, inspiring and fired-up individuals committed to social
change. Each individual, group and project is committed to challenging
social and structural issues around HIV and AIDS. From HIV positive
youth fighting stigma to peer education projects and safer sex
parties, this manual honours the work of communities creating spaces
to talk about the issues that matter most. And? each project is
accomplished with the use of art!

Partners:

Youth
Action Network
www.youthactionnetwork.org/
Gendering Adolescent AIDS Prevention
(GAAP)
www.utgaap.info
Centre for Urban Health Initiatives
(CUHI)
www.cuhi.utoronto.ca

Printing of the manual has been
generously supported by CATIE.
To order a FREE copy of the manual after the launch, please visit the
CATIE Ordering Centre at www.catie.ca after the launch. CATIE Centre
Catalogue Number ATI-26158.