Pubdate: Fri, 18 Apr 2003
Source: Houston Voice (TX)
Copyright: 2003 Window Media LLC
Contact  http://www.houstonvoice.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2892
Author: Lou Chibbaro Jr.

BILL PASSES TARGETING RAVE SCENE

'Chilling Effect' On Circuit Parties Feared

An anti-drug bill that gay and straight event promoters say could subject 
them to criminal prosecution for drug offenses committed by their customers 
passed in the House and Senate on April 10 by overwhelming margins.

The legislation, formerly known as the RAVE Act and later renamed the 
Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, sailed through Congress with little 
public notice and almost no debate after a House-Senate conference 
committee on April 8 attached the bill to the popular Child Abduction 
Prevention Act.

White House officials say President Bush plans to sign the legislation.

Gay event promoters, including organizers of gay circuit parties, have 
warned that the anti-drug bill could subject them to criminal penalties and 
stiff civil fines, a development, they said, that could prompt them to 
consider discontinuing the popular circuit parties. Circuit events have 
long served as fund-raisers for gay civil rights causes and AIDS organizations.

The bill broadens the scope of an existing federal law, known as the Crack 
House Act, which gives the federal government authority to criminally 
prosecute owners of properties in which drug use and distribution occurs. 
The new legislation authorizes federal prosecution of organizers or 
promoters of one-time events, such as circuit parties or rave events, in 
which alleged drug use or distribution occurs. The bill also allows federal 
authorities to file civil charges against event promoters who allegedly 
allow drug activity at their events.

Critics have said the civil offense clause in the bill could be used to 
bankrupt promoters because they could be ordered to pay a $250,000 fine for 
each charge filed against them. Civil charges require a lower threshold of 
evidence than criminal charges, making it easier for prosecutors to obtain 
a conviction.

"It is important to remember that this legislation punishes business owners 
and event producers and sponsors for the actions of event attendees, 
despite their efforts to discourage or prevent illegal drug use," said gay 
event promoter Mark Lee, who produces the D.C. gay dance parties Atlas and 
Lizard Lounge.

"Essentially there is no way for special event producers or circuit events 
to adequately protect themselves or their events from possible prosecution 
under the terms of the law," he said.

Lee said he was especially concerned that the law allows authorities to use 
"harm-reduction" efforts by circuit party promoters as evidence of the 
promoter's "knowledge" that drug use is occurring at these events.

Promoters of the D.C. Cherry Party, for example, have in the past provided 
medical services and drug information literature for their patrons, 
services that Lee fears could be used against event promoters by an 
overzealous prosecutor.

Targeting unscrupulous promoters

Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.), the author and chief sponsor of the Illicit 
Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, has denied the legislation would harm 
legitimate nightclubs or events. Biden said the measure is aimed at 
unscrupulous event promoters or club owners who "knowingly" allow, 
encourage or promote drug use and sales on their premises. Biden noted that 
the club drug ecstasy is widely used in nightclubs that offer rave music as 
well as at one-time events that bill themselves as rave parties.

While disputing assertions by the American Civil Liberties Union and rave 
party enthusiasts that his bill would violate First Amendment protection of 
free expression by singling out a specific type of music, Biden 
nevertheless agreed to remove the term "RAVE" from the bill's title, which 
was an acronym for Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy.

Biden also deleted from the bill a preamble or "findings" section that 
linked the distribution of glow sticks, the sale of bottled water, and the 
offering of air conditioned "chill rooms" by event promoters as potential 
evidence that the events were encouraging the use or sale of ecstasy on 
their premises.

The child abduction measure, known as the "Amber alert" bill, establishes a 
national, federally funded alert system to help local law enforcement 
agencies and the FBI rescue abducted children. The bill received 
overwhelming bipartisan support, making it impossible for opponents of the 
Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act to persuade their colleagues to vote 
against the combined legislation.

The Senate passed the combined measure by a vote of 98 to 0. The House 
passed the legislation by a vote of 400 to 25, with eight members not 
voting and two members voting "present."

'Overly punitive'

Gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was among the 25 House members to vote 
against the Amber alert bill. Frank, who voted for an earlier version of 
the Amber alert measure, said the Republican-controlled conference 
committee's decision to add the RAVE Act to the bill prompted him to vote 
against it on April 10.

Frank called the former RAVE Act and its new incarnation another example of 
the nation's "overly punitive approach to drug use," which he called 
"counterproductive."

Frank said he believes opponents would have been able to line up many more 
votes against the measure had Republican leaders allowed it to reach the 
House floor as a freestanding bill.

The other two openly gay members of the House -- Reps. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) 
and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) -- voted for the combined bill.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who also voted against the Amber alert bill, 
opposed a decision by the conference committee to attach several unrelated 
bills to the Amber alert measure, in addition to the RAVE Act, turning the 
measure into a "Christmas tree" bill for ultra conservative causes, 
according to a Nadler spokesperson.

William McColl, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, 
a group that lobbied against the RAVE Act, said the version of the act that 
Congress passed last week is broadly worded. He said the legislation will 
likely embolden federal prosecutors to cite the use of glow sticks and 
chill rooms as grounds for launching a drug investigation into rave or 
circuit parties.
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MAP posted-by: Tom