Pubdate: Mon, 03 Jun 2002
Source: Peak, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 Peak Publications Society
Contact:  http://www.peak.sfu.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/775
Author: Amanda Schapel, Daily Bruin (UC-Los Angeles)

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATORS PUSH FOR REGULATION OF RAVES, ECSTASY

LOS ANGELES - By a little after midnight Sunday, ticket prices had more 
than tripled at Orion, a popular all-age dance club downtown. Teen-agers 
wearing baggy pants and candy necklaces mixed with older club fans in line, 
where the trance music playing indoors was reduced to a deep, repetitive beat.

Should legislation currently in the California Assembly pass, promoters of 
electronic music clubs like Orion would face increased scrutiny from local 
permitting authorities and law enforcement.

The bill, considered on the assembly floor last week, would require 
promoters of "any electronic music dance event commonly referred to as rave 
parties" to submit, 30 days in advance of their event, evidence that they 
can recognise and prevent the use of illegal drugs and "drug paraphernalia."

Before becoming law, the bill must be passed by the assembly and state 
senate, and signed by the governor.

Law enforcement supporters say the bill would better protect young people 
that attend "raves" by forcing promoters to pay attention to illegal use of 
drugs like ecstasy, GHB, ketamine, methamphetamines and LSD.

Civil liberties groups and music fans say the bill unfairly targets 
electronic music and might bring about unforeseen consequences for both 
promoters and participators.

This is not the first time citizens have seen legislation targeting raves 
and specific kinds of music as conducive to illegal activities and it won't 
be the last.

The current bill is aimed at indoor, club or warehouse raves that already 
submit permits for their events.

According to reports from the Drug Abuse Warning Network, emergency 
department visits resulting from club drug use are rare and usually involve 
the use of multiple drugs.

Ecstasy, the drug singled out in much of the recent legislation against 
raves, is popular amongst middle-class adolescents and young adults, and 
can result in long-term cognitive impairment, according to the Drug 
Enforcement Agency.

"It is my sincere belief that our children are facing an ever-changing and 
often dangerous world. In authoring this bill, I know I am doing my part to 
help protect all children by limiting our children's access to drugs," said 
assembly member Nancy Havice in the analysis portion of the bill.

According to Carlos Benilla, chief of staff for Havice, children are using 
drugs openly at rave events, so the legislature wants to be assured 
promoters are paying attention to what goes on at the events.

The groups that oppose the bill acknowledge that drug use occurs at rave 
events, but say the threat the bill poses to civil liberties cannot be 
justified.

The Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has 
launched an Internet campaign against the bill, calling it 
unconstitutional, unreasonable and vague. According to its Web site, the 
bill "denies to one group of people the same level of freedom that others 
enjoy."

Benilla had no comment about ACLU's campaign and accusations, but said 
"we're not targeting a specific kind of music; we're targeting a specific 
kind of activity that is taking place."

The problem, according to the Centre for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, is 
that the bill says just the opposite, and "profiling people on the basis of 
what type of music they listen to . . . is absurd."

For numerous civil liberties groups, this is not the first anti-rave 
legislation they have opposed.

Britain began targeting electronic music in the early 1990's. For its 
purposes, it defined "rave music" as any music with successive, repetitive 
beats.

According to University of California-Los Angeles musicology professor 
Robert Fink, that definition became a joke when artists began to subtly 
manipulate the music so that their beats were irregular by fractions of a 
second.

The regulations in Britain demonstrate "what happens when you let 
politicians get into the musicology business," Fink said.

In the United States, legislation against raves began in the late 1990's in 
the form of local initiatives enforcing juvenile curfews and licensing 
requirements for large public gatherings.

Legislation similar to that in the state assembly is currently pending in 
Congress to hold event promoters criminally responsible for the illegal 
conduct at their events and to provide financial incentives to communities 
that pass anti-rave laws.

Much of the regulation of rave events, however, relies on older statutes, 
like federal "crackhouse laws" against building managers that know about 
the use or distribution of controlled substances in their buildings.

Marsha Rosenbaum, who conducted the first federally funded sociological 
study on ecstasy, said the regulation on raves is part of "the drug scare 
du jour" over ecstasy.

"Increasingly draconian penalties for use and distribution are being 
devised by eager politicians, making [ecstasy] America's new 'reefer 
madness,'" Rosenbaum said in an article for the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.

When Fisk teaches the "History of Electronic Dance Music" at UCLA, he 
emphasises that legislation against raves is part of a larger societal 
concern with rebellious music.

Since the industrial era, there has been socially deviant music associated 
with the release of stress through dance that mimics and mocks the 
monotonous element of factory work, Fisk said.

The danger of the new bill is that it could more deeply polarise the 
electronic music scene in California by pushing small raves further 
underground, Fisk said.

Some fans of electronic music are disenchanted with the "rave scene" in its 
current state, though, and see the new bill as a positive step.

Jason Bentley, the DJ for KCRW's "Metropolis," said the time has come for 
promoters and young people to take responsibility for their actions and for 
the reputation raves have acquired.

"Part of what makes a rave a rave is the nature of it being illegal and 
underground," Bentley said. Holding promoters more responsible for what 
happens at their events "is a process we have to go through if the scene 
has any future," he said.

Other fans of electronic music, like Griffin Woodworth, a graduate student 
in musicology, worry the legislation will have a negative impact on the music.

Woodworth acknowledged drug use has been a part of the development of 
electronic music, but said legislating music for that reason is an 
"unjustifiable leap."

"Drugs do not make the music, and music does not cause the drugs," 
Woodworth said.
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