Pubdate: Tue, 22 Apr 2003
Source: Village Voice (NY)
Copyright: 2003 Village Voice Media, Inc
Contact:  http://www.villagevoice.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/482
Author: Carla Spartos

PARTY PATROL

Every summer, thousands of New Yorkers descend upon Central Park's Rumsey 
Playfield for the highly anticipated SummerStage concert series.

Families stretch out in the cool grass lining the field's perimeter, while 
closer to the stage, a motley mix of club kids, hip-hop heads, and soccer 
moms feverishly dance. In the past, the eclectic programming has featured 
everything from old-school rappers Biz Markie and Doug E. Fresh to 
house-music outfit Basement Jaxx. To combat the sweltering heat, 
concertgoers cool off with overpriced bottles of water, and behind the 
stage, an ambulance stands by. But this year, dance community activists 
fear that concerts like those at SummerStage could be jeopardized. Equipped 
with a loosely worded law making venue owners and concert promoters 
responsible for their patrons' partying ways, overzealous prosecutors could 
target mainstream event organizers with stiff fines, jail sentences (up to 
20 years), and property seizures.

Two weeks ago, the House and Senate quietly passed the Illicit Drug 
Anti-Proliferation Act of 2003--legislation aimed at quelling club drugs 
like Ecstasy and GHB. Ushered through with little fanfare, the act was 
piggybacked onto the AMBER Alert Bill, a package of child-safety laws with 
overwhelming congressional support.

President Bush has promised to sign it into law in the upcoming weeks.

But despite serious grassroots opposition spearheaded by organizations like 
the Electronic Music Defense and Education Fund, the bill passed without a 
Senate hearing. "It was backdoor legislation at its worst," says William 
McColl, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, a group 
that lobbies for drug decriminalization.

The act expands upon the so-called "crack house" statute--an '80s law 
allowing prosecutors to go after the owners of "crack houses," even if 
they're neither dealers nor users.

In 2001, the DEA broke ground by aiming the crack house statute at a new 
target--the owners and promoters of a concert venue, the State Palace 
Theater in New Orleans. A teenage drug overdose spurred the investigation, 
and the defendants were indicted for "knowingly and intentionally" allowing 
drug use to take place; evidence included overpriced bottles of water ($3; 
the same price at which the nearby Superdome sells them), chill-out rooms, 
and on-site ambulances. A plea agreement was reached--fining the business 
$100,000--and surgical masks, glow sticks, and pacifiers were banned from 
the club. A year later, a federal judge overturned the ban on the grounds 
that it violated First Amendment rights.

The DEA has had mixed results prosecuting promoters using the crack house 
statute.

The new incarnation requires a lower burden of proof by making business 
owners not only criminally but civilly liable for the acts of their patrons.

It also applies to outdoor, as well as one-night-only, events. "It gives 
prosecutors a bigger hammer," says Marv Johnson, legislative counsel for 
the American Civil Liberties Union. "Even if they can't prove without a 
reasonable doubt, they can still go after you civilly and take away your 
profits, your property."

The brain behind the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act is Senator Joseph 
Biden, a longtime drug warrior who also helped create the crack house 
statute and the Office of National Drug Control Policy in the 1980s. The 
Delaware Democrat first introduced his legislation last year, when it was 
known as the RAVE (Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy) Act, and 
argued that the sale of expensive bottled water or glow sticks at an 
electronic-music event was evidence of Ecstasy use. It was met with a 
flurry of faxes protesting the act, spurring two of the bill's co-sponsors, 
senators Patrick Leahy and Richard Durbin, to drop their support.

The new version also drops the rave act. "It's venue neutral," says 
Margaret Aitken, Biden's press secretary. "That's why we changed the name."

The renamed Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act no longer contains such 
inflammatory "indicators" of Ecstasy use (like glow sticks), but concerns 
over constitutional violations remain. "Business owners have come to 
Congress and told us there are only so many steps they can take to prevent 
any of the thousands of people who may attend a concert or a rave from 
using drugs, and they are worried about being held personally accountable 
for the illegal acts of others," wrote Senator Leahy in a statement he 
issued shortly after the Senate unanimously passed the AMBER Alert bill.

Just what constitutes "knowingly and intentionally" has also been something 
of an enigma to local businesses. Several Manhattan club owners seek 
assistance from Forensic Investigative Associates--a private company run by 
Bob Silbering, a former federal prosecutor who helped shut down the 
Limelight in 1994. Silbering is hired by everyone from the courts to the 
police to the clubs to evaluate a venue's security practices.

He recommends that clubs search patrons, put up anti-drug signs, use 
cameras, and employ a sufficient number of trained security people. "You 
can't keep drugs totally out," says Silbering. "But you can take measures."

Anybody who's been to a concert, festival, or club in the last 50 years 
knows people do drugs, whether it is an acid tab ingested at a rock show, a 
line of cocaine inhaled in a discotheque, or more recently, a hit of 
Ecstasy taken at a superclub.

It is because of this pervasive use that many fear the new law could 
curtail all kinds of concerts--not just raves.

Like the State Palace Theater in New Orleans, the wildly popular 
SummerStage series often hosts DJ dance parties; trained medical staff are 
on hand and pricey bottled water is sold. Now that the law applies to 
outdoor and one-night-only events, it could be argued that the promoters of 
these shows "knowingly and intentionally" allow drug use.

Aitken says that's not the intent: "There's a lot of misconception that the 
law imposes criminal liability on business owners.

This is not about incidental drug use."

But many of the club owners and promoters the Voice spoke with were wary 
about being interviewed. Third Floor Media, the PR agency for SummerStage, 
declined to participate in this story, as did Radio City Entertainment, the 
firm that organizes concerts at Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music 
Hall. After a week of legal vetting, Clear Channel--the entertainment 
conglomerate responsible for blockbuster tours like the annual 
Ozzfest--finally released a statement packed with legalese in support of 
the law, saying it's "positive legislation," written "in a manner that will 
prevent the facility managers and owners from being prosecuted if a patron 
breaks the law on their premises without management awareness."

A major concern, however, is whether the law is going to be abused. "The 
bottom line is if the federal government wants to get you, they will," says 
longtime NYC promoter Matt E. Silver. "This is just another tool to use 
against you." This sentiment is echoed by John Feinblatt, the city's 
criminal justice coordinator, who also says the law's one-night-only 
provision gives police a new "tool" to go after unscrupulous operators. 
"The state has certainly had laws that enabled us to go against 
irresponsible club owners," says Feinblatt. "But promoters have been able 
to hide in the shadows."

One prominent dance-music promoter, Chris Kausch of Stuck on Earth 
Productions, has thrown raves featuring big-name DJs like Carl Cox and 
Richie Hawtin at city landmarks like Randalls Island and South Street 
Seaport. Events like his are probably what Biden had in mind when he first 
drafted this legislation. But Kausch is a legitimate promoter who works 
closely with city agencies: The parks department has even offered him 
letters of recommendation. Kausch, who was hesitant to talk to the Voice, 
says he's unsure about his business's future. "We're thinking about 
shutting down the company," says Kausch, who also runs a music label and 
marketing firm. "It's a headache."

In New York, where anti-dancing cabaret laws are enforced and cigarette 
smoking has been banned, the new federal law is proving to be just one more 
bureaucratic nightmare. "First tobacco is our fault.

Now drug addiction is our fault?" questions Centro-Fly co-owner Tom Sisk. 
David Rabin, the outspoken president of the New York Nightlife Association, 
agrees: "It is very dangerous when legislation is passed by people who are 
clueless about nightlife and go to bed before midnight."

Witness the feds' evidence of acknowledged drug use: expensive bottled 
water and on-site ambulances. The high price for H20 is meant to be 
prohibitive: "The reason water is expensive is because we don't want to 
sell water," says Sisk.

Some wonder whether the feds' policy will do more harm for clubgoers, 
particularly in summer months: "People's safety should come first," says 
Kenny Smith, co-owner of Crobar, a Chicago- and Miami-based megaclub chain 
that's opening a location in Chelsea this fall.

Perhaps New York could take a cue from Miami, where nightlife is a big 
tourist draw. In South Beach clubs, it isn't uncommon to see fire marshals 
roaming dancefloors. Smith employs several emergency-trained staff members, 
and his club plans on taking tough security measures to combat drug use. 
"We just hope you have a great experience after we've searched your every 
purse and cavity," he cracks.

Civil-liberty advocates are concerned that invasive searches at concert 
venues may be just the beginning and that certain kinds of music events 
will be singled out. They believe alternative subcultures--repetitive-beat 
freaks, jam-band junkies, hip-hop heads, gay circuit boys--are most 
vulnerable. "The government can essentially shut down any genre of music 
they don't like," says the ACLU's Marv Johnson.

Or shut down any event whose patrons they don't like. "Say the city feels a 
hip-hop concert is in the wrong place; [they] could use it heavy-handedly," 
says Crobar's Smith. "That's the scary part."
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