In the movie Footloose, Kevin Bacon's character asks, ``Is it a crime to dance?'' Two decades later, the rock 'n' roll beat has given way to an electronic thump. But the dancers' complaint is similar. Young people who like to dance till dawn at clubs like Space 34 in downtown Miami say a new federal statute amounts to an attack on their culture, while promoters fear it will put them out of business. The source of their anguish is the Illicit Anti-Drug Proliferation Act, Congress' attempt to reduce drug use in nightclubs. [continues 858 words]
If you thought the federal government couldn't possibly create legislation more draconian and reprehensible than the PATRIOT Act, RAVE Act, CLEAN-UP Act, or Ecstasy Awareness Act, you thought wrong -- really, really wrong. Late last month ABC News shagged a copy of a proposed bill quietly making the Capitol rounds, and reportedly slated for introduction this fall, that would create the crime of "narcoterrorism" -- making it possible for the feds to redefine any and all drug crimes as acts of terrorism. [continues 360 words]
With Criticism Focused on Its Enforcement Policy, the R.A.V.E. Act Threatens to Ban Raves From Clubs. During the Sept. 6 protest and concert against the congressional R.A.V.E. Act (Reducing Americas Vulnerability to Ecstasy), house music innovators took the stage to tell attendees about the act's implications and problems. Critics say the act will cause clubs to stop playing house music because of its alleged connection with ecstasy use. Critics also claim the act is ambiguous, giving law enforcement officials wide discretion as well as scaring promoters from hosting raves because of heavy fines and the threat of imprisonment if any drug use is found to take place during their event. [continues 1153 words]
Experts who gave a dramatic warning that ecstasy led to brain damage based their study on a huge blunder. It was billed as the one of the most dramatic warnings the world has ever received over the dangers of ecstasy. A study from one of America's leading universities concluded that taking the drug for just one evening could leave clubbers with irreversible brain damage, and trigger the onset of Parkinson's disease. The study, published in the eminent journal Science last September, had an immediate impact. Doctors and anti-drug crusaders spoke of a 'neurological time bomb' facing the young. Others suggested that taking one of the tablets was the equivalent of playing Russian roulette with the brain, and demanded tighter 'anti-rave' laws to deal with it. [continues 681 words]
Brain Damage Claims Created by Error in Study A leading scientific journal on Friday retracted a paper it published last year saying one night's typical dose of the drug Ecstasy may cause permanent brain damage. The monkeys and baboons in the study were not injected with Ecstasy but with a powerful amphetamine, Science magazine said. The retraction was submitted by the team at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine that did the study. A medical school spokesman called the mistake "unfortunate" but said Dr. George A. Ricaurte, the researcher who made it, was "still a faculty member in good standing whose research is solid and respected." [continues 343 words]
A leading scientific journal yesterday retracted a paper it published last year saying that one night's typical dose of the drug Ecstasy might cause permanent brain damage. The monkeys and baboons in the study were not injected with Ecstasy but with a powerful amphetamine, said the journal, Science magazine. The retraction was submitted by the team at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine that did the study. A medical school spokesman called the mistake "unfortunate" but said that Dr. George A. Ricaurte, the researcher who made it, was "still a faculty member in good standing whose research is solid and respected." [continues 349 words]
As Congress enters the fall session, legislators will be considering a trio of bills that would deepen the war on drugs. One of them, the euphemistically named VICTORY Act, seeks to tie the war on drugs to the war on terrorism by creating the new crime of "narcoterrorism," while two other proposed measures would extend the wars on ecstasy and methamphetamine to include promoters, club owners, or anyone else who profits in any way from an event where they "know" drug use might take place. [continues 1716 words]
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." [continues 725 words]
The Crackdown On Raves Continues. Sen. Joseph Biden's anti-rave law is only a few months old, but other drug warriors in Congress are already trying to improve upon it. Two bills would make it easier to hold event sponsors liable for drug use by their guests. And unlike the final version of Biden's legislation, both explicitly target raves. When Biden introduced the bill that became this year's Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, the Delaware Democrat called it the Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy (RAVE) Act. The "findings" section began: "Each year tens of thousands of young people are initiated into the drug culture at 'rave' parties or events (all-night, alcohol-free dance parties typically featuring loud, pounding dance music)." The bill cited the characteristic signs of "rave culture," including "club drugs," chill rooms, neon glow sticks, massage oils, pacifiers, and menthol nasal inhalers. [continues 646 words]
Just when you thought federal legislators couldn't possibly come up with a more draconian measure than the recently passed Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act -- formerly, and still informally, known as the RAVE Act -- five U.S. House members have upped the ante with the newly filed Ecstasy Awareness Act of 2003 (HR 2962). The bill, sponsored by New Jersey Democrat Bill Pascrell, would further amend the Controlled Substances Act to include criminal liability for anyone who "profits monetarily" from a rave or "similar electronic dance event" and who would "have reason to know" of drug use during the event. The new statute would be punishable by up to a $500,000 fine, 20 years in prison, or both, and would authorize a $10 million appropriation to the U.S. attorney general for the purpose of awarding state grants to prosecutors and cops, "for the prosecution of Ecstasy offenses." [continues 328 words]
America's New Patriot Act and Patriot II Trash the Constitution and Brand Political Dissent As Terrorism. America's war on Iraq, and now possibly Syria, has drawn public and media attention away from the burgeoning state security apparatus focused on US domestic matters. Those who think they know better than the rest of us have set their sights on dissidents of all stripes, including afficionados of a certain plant. No matter the Marine Corps Semper Fi inked on your bicep, to indulge in a bowl on your back porch brands you a dissident. In the broadest sense under the post-9/11 regime, just about any crime is terrorism. If it's been on TV it must be true: Drug use equals terrorism. Or so the White House has instructed the citizenry to the tune of $150 million and more a year. [continues 3315 words]
Karen Tandy, expected to be confirmed soon as the new head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), did not face many tough questions when her nomination was considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee. One of the few exceptions came from Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), who asked her about a problem he was instrumental in creating. Biden referred to an incident in Billings, Montana, on May 30, when a DEA agent brought a copy of the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act to the local Eagles Lodge. The agent warned the lodge's manager that a fund-raising concert sponsored by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Students for a Sensible Drug Policy might violate the law if anyone attending the event lit up a joint. [continues 649 words]
The beats of hard-driving house music pounded on my skull. The air was filled with the booming bass and accelerated rhythms of techno music. The typical 4/4 beat blasted through Westlake Center from a huge PA system set up for the recent event. The "ravers" gathered to protest new legislation that was adversely affecting their scene. The "Rave Act" specifically targets people who promote raves and electronic music events -- not just any music event. The media often show rave parties as dangerous drug-fests frequented by strange-looking kids, all pierced in different places with fluorescent hair and wild eyes. The people who attend them are stereotyped as being criminals who use these concerts to sell or do drugs. [continues 576 words]
Summertime and the living's easy. Or so it is said. Sunshine, swimming and evenings enjoying music with friends. In fact, summer is concert season, with the biggest names in music hitting the road. At least, it used to be. Now that federal legislation has passed the Anti-Drug Proliferation Act of 2003 (formerly known as the RAVE Act), not only are raver kids forced to put up their candy and glow sticks, but those holding tickets to some of the biggest summer music festivals might have to make other plans as well. [continues 361 words]
The Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, D.C., has issued guidance to its field offices nationwide after an incident in Billings involving enforcement of a new anti-drug law. On May 30, a DEA agent visited the local Eagles Lodge and told the manager that the business could be fined up to $250,000 if it allowed the Billings chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) to hold a fund-raiser concert there and people attending smoked marijuana. [continues 843 words]
THE RECENT PASSAGE of the RAVE act, which allows the government to hold event organizers responsible for customers' drug use, should infuriate even those who'd run screaming from one of these all-night, electronic-music-fueled dance parties. Why? The RAVE Act, now officially known as the illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, passed both the House and Senate in April without ever having gone through committee and without floor debate. Sen. Joseph R. Biden (D-Del.) tacked his legislation onto the Amber Alert bill, a measure intended to help capture kidnappers, for no reason except political expediency. He had learned from his experience last session, when vocal, organized opposition from groups like the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) stopped the bill in its tracks. [continues 196 words]
Did The DEA Misuse A Controversial Statute To Silence Anti-Drug Law Activists? When Montana State University student Adam Jones organized a benefit concert for May 30 at the Fraternal Order of Eagles lodge in Billings, MT, he intended to raise money for the fight to legalize marijuana for medical use. The Drug Enforcement Administration, however, may not have approved. On the eve of his first major foray into drug reform activism, Jones found himself in jail and the lodge's board of trustees pulled the plug. Though none of the show's three local bands had a chance to play a single chord, critics and advocates of a controversial new law, the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, also known as the RAVE Act, heard the reverberations loud and clear. [continues 853 words]
Comparing The Candidates' Positions On Marijuana The Bush junta's record on pot is abysmal. Some people hoped that as a Republican recovering alcoholic and cokehead, George W. might pull a "Nixon goes to China" on drug policy, but his performance in office has been more like Nixon bombing hospitals in Vietnam. From the crackdowns on medical marijuana and glass pipes to the threats to Canada if it decriminalizes pot, he's made cultural war on cannabis the center of his drug policy. [continues 1238 words]
I have to admit, I've never been to a rave party. For me, not only have those days come and gone, they never were. I know about them, though. Rave parties are loud, raucous affairs, where young adults dance into the early morning to the pounding beat of electronic music. And there is often drug use, the methamphetamine known as Ecstasy to be exact. The trick in a free society, where cultural expression -- even the annoyingly unmelodic kind -- must be allowed to flourish, is to punish illegal behavior without disturbing the exuberance of art and expression. [continues 775 words]
Gay Event Promoter Mark Lee Is Focused on Throwing Good Parties - And Ensuring That Local Nightlife Survives Mark Lee knows all about throwing a good party. After all, he's been doing it for most of his life. "I was once asked how I got into the event productions business," says Lee, the owner of ATLAS Events. "I always tell people that I threw my first event at the age of 6, when I organized a neighborhood carnival in my childhood neighborhood. That was a lot of fun. Everyone in the neighborhood came." [continues 737 words]
