Pubdate: Thu, 21 Aug 2003
Source: In These Times Magazine (US)
Copyright: 2003 In These Times
Contact:  http://www.inthesetimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/207
Author: Steven Wishnia
Cited: National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
http://www.norml.org/ (California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?231 
(Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act (RAVE)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?214 (Drug Policy Alliance)

NEW DRUG LAW LIMITS GATHERINGS

Billings, Montana-On May 30, a DEA agent walked into the local Eagles
Lodge. The agent informed the hall's manager that if anyone used
illegal drugs at the night's show, the lodge would be liable for a
$250,000 fine, under the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act of 2003.
The show, a benefit for the Montana State University chapters of the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Students
for a Sensible Drug Policy, was cancelled.

"It was a classic violation of the First Amendment," says Harry
Williams of the American Civil Liberties Union's drug-law project.
"The government targeted an event because it disagreed with the
political views of its organizers."

The incident was the first use of the controversial new law, which
extends the federal "crackhouse law"-which makes it a felony to
"knowingly" and "intentionally" allow property to be used for the
purpose of drug dealing, manufacturing, or use-to cover temporary use
of property, such as a rave in a rented warehouse. Originally
introduced as the "Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act"
in 2002 by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Delaware), it stalled that fall after
Congress received more than 40,000 letters of opposition. However, it
was enacted last April, when Biden tacked it on to the "Amber Alert"
child-kidnapping bill, after excising its "RAVE Act" title and
rhetoric about "loud, pounding dance music."

Taken literally, the law is so broad that letting people smoke
marijuana at a private house party could be a federal felony. However,
the furor over the Billings incident may have caused the government to
back off somewhat. Biden, who had insisted that the law was merely
intended to protect children from the horrors of Ecstasy and GHB, was
not pleased.

On June 17, he wrote a letter expressing his concern to acting DEA
administrator William Simpkins. Simpkins responded that while the
agent in Montana had wanted to make sure that the Eagles Lodge owners
"fully understood" that the NORML benefit was "likely to promote the
use of illicit drugs," he had "misinterpreted" the law, and the DEA
was issuing new guidelines for enforcing it.

"The law will be used to target unscrupulous promoters who use their
event to facilitate drug trafficking, who prey on teenagers and young
adults," says DEA spokesperson Will Glaspy. According to a notice the
DEA posted on its Web site June 20, it will not apply to private
parties or "events where people just happened to use drugs."

"The law sets the bar very high," asserts Biden spokesperson Chip
Unruh. It is aimed at promoters personally involved in drug sales, he
explains, and is not intended to prosecute club owners for patrons'
behavior.

The measure's critics remain uneasy. The federal government has used
the crackhouse law against promoters, and mass arrests at electronic
dance parties are common. Last November, police in Racine, Wisconsin
raided a rave and charged all the 440-odd people there with
patronizing a "disorderly house."

"I've talked to a lot of landowners and promoters, and they are not
reassured by the DEA's promises," says the ACLU's Williams. "The
nationwide chilling effect is very strong."

In addition, recent court decisions make it easier to prosecute club
owners and promoters for drug use by patrons, notes Bill Piper of the
Drug Policy Alliance. On June 20, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals
held that a ban on glow sticks-an otherwise legal rave-scene
accoutrement-at a New Orleans venue was constitutional. The promoters,
prosecuted under the crackhouse law, had agreed to the ban as part of
a plea bargain.

The law may end up affecting marijuana-culture events more, speculates
Dale Gieringer of California NORML, given that the Bush regime "has
decided that pot's the most dangerous drug." In the weeks after the
Billings incident, an alternative-health fair in Sonoma County,
California cancelled plans to have a designated smoking area for
medical-marijuana patients. In Seattle, organizers of the annual
Hempfest, the nation's largest pot-legalization rally, decided not to
let vendors sell pipes at the event. "If we're going to fight on First
Amendment grounds, we want to be in the best position we can," says
director Vivian McPeak. "This administration is serious about going
after our culture."

Adam Jones, the Billings benefit's 21-year-old organizer, says the
raid was a good thing, because it "grabbed people's attention" about
the law, but he wouldn't want to go through it again. On probation for
possession of psilocybin mushrooms, he was jailed the day before the
show for violating it-not telling his probation officer that his
employer, the Billings YMCA, had transferred him to another branch for
the summer. He also ended up losing his job, and says he's withdrawing
from activism for now.

"It pains me because if anything, my opinions about the need for
drug-law reform are stronger now," he says, "but my probation officer
has got the power."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin