Warning over drug party

DURBAN police cannot act on an invitation sent to hundreds of teenagers to attend the next alcohol-and-drug-fuelled Project X party.

Police spokesman Colonel Vincent Mdunge said it was impossible for the police to scrutinise every party that teenagers attended.

The invitation sent out on social networks and the BlackBerry messenger service clearly calls for teenagers to consume alcohol and take drugs at the party planned for this coming Saturday in Assagay outside Durban.

If it goes ahead the party will be the third event in Durban based on the film Project X, in which three unpopular American teenagers use the Internet to invite people to their party but end up with more than they bargained for.

"The police will do as much as they can when a crime is committed at these parties but it is up to parents to keep their children away from these parties," Mdunge said.

Steven King - whose Facebook page "Waterfall Crime Watch" has been flooded with messages from concerned parents after the last Project X party - said police would have difficulty keeping track of all the planned Project X parties.

King said the public had a duty to work together to put a stop to Project X parties.

"Neighbours must call the police to complain about the noise level and police must also arrest the hosts for breaking municipal bylaws by overcrowding," he said.

King said the Project X party in Pinetown two weeks ago was a "flop".

"Parents were aware of the last party, so they kept their children at home. There was low attendance so it was a flop," he said.

Three weeks ago a party in Hillcrest, west of Durban, ended with two girls in hospital, drunk and drugged teenagers and a trashed house.