BERLIN (dpa) – The Love Parade’s motto is simple: “Have sun in your heart, whether it’s storming or snowing, and you’ll be immune to everything in life.
“We know that we and the Earth were born of the sun and we open our hearts to it like children”.The text was not written by a wacky guru. It is the philosophy of Doctor Motte, the creator of Germany’s biggest demonstration: the Love Parade.What at the beginning was planned as pure provocation has grown into one of the country’s largest youth movements. On July 21, Germany’s capital will be plunged into techno fever once more, with countless ravers filling the streets.But the party-goers bring more than peace, love and fun along to the Victory Column.“With the guests come the drugs,” said Katharina Vollmer, social worker for Berlin’S drug emergency service.The drug emergency service has been at the Love Parade for the past six years. Although the medical workers cannot stop drug consumption, they hope to give advice about the risks involved.“We want to do preventive work right at the scene,” Vollmer said.A large number of the ravers still turn to the party drug Ecstasy to keep them partying through the whole Love Parade weekend. And, although official numbers indicate Ecstasy use is falling, experts assume a high number of unknown cases.On the actual day of the Love Parade, medical professionals will spend most of their time drawing attention to the consequences of using Ecstasy.Ecstasy users can protect themselves from the drug’s unpleasant side effects by taking in fruit, vitamin tablets and fluids.“The body loses a lot of fluid, and there is no feeling of hunger or thirst” when a person takes Ecstasy, according to University of Tuebingen Professor Karl-Artur Kovar. He has spent years studying the undesired and often very dangerous effects of a long night with Ecstasy.Kovar has found that Ecstasy, the top party drug, is rarely pure. Analyses of Ecstasy pills have revealed they are often laced with other substances including harmless pain relievers. But some tablets he analysed contained deadly strychnine.“Many people think it’s an old wives’ tale. But the fact is that such substances were found in random samples,” Kovar warns.Ecstasy itself is known chemically as methylendeoxymethylamphetamine(MDMA) and was used therapeutically in Switzerland in the early 1990s. Taking it enabled patients to look deep inside themselves emotionally.People who take Ecstasy “experience a great need to share feelings, feel a sense of love for the world and become very peaceful”, Kovar explained.He said people become very perceptive, have increased confidence and experience the well-known “high” feeling, which is intensified by the pulsating beats of techno music.Higher blood pressure, dizziness and nausea are the drug’s more tolerable side effects, but even a first-time user can suffer a stroke or even die from overheating, Kovar said.Because Ecstasy users lose their sense of thirst, they take in too little liquid and their body temperature can climb past 40 degrees. But users fail to notice this shutdown of the body’s temperature regulation system and death can result.Kovar said psychosis and nervous system disorders also have been observed as long-term effects of Ecstasy use.Another danger presents itself, Kovar said, when users combine Ecstasy with alcohol, speed, LSD or cocaine. Many find they need a downer such as hashish in order to sleep.But, as social worker Vollmer said, the dangers can be reduced if partygoers know the side effects and take in plenty of water, vitamins and fruit.She also welcomes the efforts made in the Love Parade’s web site, where organisers say “Love is the drug. We at www.loveparade.net say no to drugs at Love Parade 2001.” They advise ravers to enjoy the music, the people and the parade trucks and to consider the negative effects of bringing drugs to the party.The site encourages Love Parade visitors to eat a good breakfast and bring along a backpack loaded with water, nuts, fruit, bread and cheese.It remains to be seen whether the Love Parade will be a gathering of backpack-wearing water drinkers, but organisers say “drugs and over a million people is not an especially good mix.”
