RAVE Act passed under Amber Alert

[Paiste]

Dear Members, Subscribers and Friends,
I do not normally use our alert channel to send a personal message.
However, I wanted to let you know that the Illicit Drug Anti-
Proliferation Act (also called the "RAVE Act"), which was attached to
the AMBER Alert bill, passed both the House and Senate late yesterday
(April 10). The RAVE Act threatens free speech and musical expression while
placing at risk any hotel/motel owner, concert promoter, event
organizer, nightclub owner or arena/stadium owner for the drug
violations of 3rd parties - real or alleged - even if the event
promoter and/or property owner made a good-faith effort to keep their
event drug-free. It applies not just to electronic-music parties,
but to any type of public gathering, including theatrical
productions, rock concerts, DJ nights at local bars, and potentially
even political rallies. It gives heightened powers and discretion to
prosecutors, who may use it to target events they personally don't
like - such as Hip-Hop events and gay and lesbian fundraisers.
Sadly, the RAVE Act was added to the AMBER Alert bill conference
report at the very last minute by Senator Biden (D-DE), its original
sponsor. The AMBER Alert bill creates a system for responding to
child abduction. It has nothing to do with drug policy. The RAVE
Act had not passed even a single committee in the House or Senate
this year. One senator's pet issue made a mockery of the Democratic
process - becoming law without any public hearing or opportunity for
input whatsoever.You should be aware that your letters and faxes clearly had an
effect. (FYI - you sent Congress 13,000 faxes this week alone!!)
For example, the word "rave" was removed from the version of the bill
that passed. Eliminating such blatant discrimination is a victory
for our continued freedom of speech. Also, the original bill
suggested that prosecutors should view the sale of water and the
presence of glowsticks or massage oil as evidence of drug use. These
ludicrous "findings" were completely removed thanks to you.
President Bush will sign this child abduction bill, which means the
RAVE Act will become law as well. We will be working with the
legislators who opposed this provision - such as Senators Durbin,
Kennedy and Leahy and Representatives Conyers and Scott - for its
repeal. In the meantime, however, it is up to all of us to be the
watchdogs of its enforcement.
Attorney General John Ashcroft will have to make decisions about its
enforcement priority among the many public safety issues the
Department of Justice handles. He must be held responsible when he
implements this scheme. We want him to know that he is not free to
shut down our dance clubs, our festivals and our freedoms. We will
be watching the activities of law enforcement and prosecutors, and we
will act when our rights are violated. You can help us by faxing
Attorney General Ashcroft here.
http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/a...ep=2&item=1581
We thank our many partners in this effort for your hard work: EMEF,
ROAR, Buzzlife Productions, Davey D., electronic dance and music
organizations throughout the U.S., club owners, hotel organizations,
beverage and licensing groups, the ACLU and many, many others. But
most of all, I want to say thank you personally to our members and supporters.
You truly deserve credit for reacting so quickly and so forcefully.
It has really been amazing. When Bill McColl, our Director of
National Affairs, told me about this issue last June he said that he
thought the RAVE Act would pass in about 2 weeks. You proved us
wrong. It took 10 months, a change in control of the Senate,
backroom maneuverings and substantial changes to the bill. I'm
proud of the hard work of our members, friends and our coalition.
Rest assured we will continue to work together to mobilize opposition
and advocate to fix this dangerous law. Sincerely, Ethan Nadelmann
Executive DirectorDrug Policy Alliance

[Satchel]

Not only is this bill utterly ridiculous, but I think it's total bullshit that they can just slip it into a bill that has NOTHING to do with it.

anyone seen the text of this act? Before I go calling it utterly ridiculous, I'd like to see what it says...

The name "illicit drug anti-proliferation" act would imply a somewhat different purpose than the RAVE act which was specifically targeted at raves and ecstasy. I'm sure its no good, but neither is any of the other ink coming out of capitol hill these days. Besides, they've basically shut raves down without the RAVE act so well, I'm not sure how much they really need new legislation. We've already given our government the go-ahead to do whatever the hell it wants, to preserve our "freedom"...

[Dionysos]

Originally posted by Satchel
Not only is this bill utterly ridiculous, but I think it's total bullshit that they can just slip it into a bill that has NOTHING to do with it.

Hello, welcome to American politics in the last century. You must be new.

[Michael Halo]

I don't know where to start ..........


--Of course, this law is ridiculous. Just like many of the current statutes on the books. However, most drug use at events & clubs is either overlooked, ignored, or even encouraged. Very little has been done by us, the djs, promotors, club owners, etc to discourage drug use, overall. Until, it's viewed that the music is more important than drugs, by a majority, then the government will keep spinning its wheels. I think a good solution would be to clean up the image of dance culture from the inside and get back to basics.

[Paiste]

Originally posted by Michael Halo
I don't know where to start ..........


--Of course, this law is ridiculous. Just like many of the current statutes on the books. However, most drug use at events & clubs is either overlooked, ignored, or even encouraged. Very little has been done by us, the djs, promotors, club owners, etc to discourage drug use, overall. Until, it's viewed that the music is more important than drugs, by a majority, then the government will keep spinning its wheels. I think a good solution would be to clean up the image of dance culture from the inside and get back to basics.

i honestly couldn't agree more.

[Pivot]

I think this bill is ridiculous as well, BUT......................


You must realize this is the governments uneducated, ill-informed response to OUR INABILITY to police our own scene. If promoters, party goers, club patrons, and DJ's would police our own culture than 3rd party groups, i.e. The U.S. Government would not need to step in.

Just my .02 cents.

BTW, my family has been friends w/ Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson for as long as I can remember (I'm almost 31), and every Christmas at the old neighborhood Christmas party, I usually talk to the Senator about some of these issues as she inadvertantly gets shit faced. She has told me this is a direct repercussion to the inability of our culture to be responsible and police our own scene. this is coming straight from the horses mouth.

Peace

[Satchel]

Perhaps you shouldn't make foolish assumptions.

Just because I think this bill and the way it was passed are complete bullshit doesn't mean I don't understand the way things work. In fact very much the opposite is the case. So fvck off.

[Satchel]

oh please point out where my opinion was ridiculous

[Dionysos]

Originally posted by WarLord
Bullshit.

Facetious argument.

No popular musical culture has been expected to "police their own scene".

What about the speakeasies that were getting busted during prohibition?

btw I don't think you mean facetious, unless you're implying that Juice wasn't serious.

[Satchel]

It's going to be interesting to see how this bill will be enforced. If they just crack down on places where drug sales are blatant, then I won't really have a problem with it. It just seems like they are given way too much leeway to trounce all over our liberties.

[DJ Cubano]

oh well looks like we're fucked now!!

[Pivot]

Originally posted by WarLord
Bullshit.

Facetious argument.

No popular musical culture has been expected to "police their own scene".

Maybe you should concentrate on personal responsibility and accountability instead of making hostile arguments.

[Dionysos]

Originally posted by Juice
Maybe you should concentrate on personal responsibility and accountability instead of making hostile arguments.

D'oh!

[phoenix]

Originally posted by Juice
I think this bill is ridiculous as well, BUT......................


You must realize this is the governments uneducated, ill-informed response to OUR INABILITY to police our own scene. If promoters, party goers, club patrons, and DJ's would police our own culture than 3rd party groups, i.e. The U.S. Government would not need to step in.

Just my .02 cents.

BTW, my family has been friends w/ Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson for as long as I can remember (I'm almost 31), and every Christmas at the old neighborhood Christmas party, I usually talk to the Senator about some of these issues as she inadvertantly gets shit faced. She has told me this is a direct repercussion to the inability of our culture to be responsible and police our own scene. this is coming straight from the horses mouth.

Peace

who cares?

I'm not about to let 60 year old fat republicans infringe on public freedoms in the name of "prevention." People die, people are stupid, people use drugs. Period. These aren't problems of just the rave scene, they're problems everywhere, in family resturaunts, sporting events, rock concerts, fairs, everywhere. But I know that there ARE in fact promoters out there who have done their utmost to keep their events as reasonably drug free as possible, and to see those same people possibly prosicuted for doing their utmost to support the same "prevention" that those republican fucks are trying to push on us is absolutely absurd. All this does is give bible belt middle class americans the weapon to shut down anything and everything that they don't like. That, contrary to popular belief, is NOT the american way. I honestly can't wait until they actually try to prosecute someone on this, take it to the supreme court and see if it stands up.

Moron.