DdC

It's baaaack. The proposed, and extremely draconian, Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy (RAVE) Act has reemerged this Congressional session -- although it no longer bears that catchy little moniker. The bill was filed last session by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and proposed extending the nets of the infamous Biden-sponsored Eighties "crack house laws" by broadening their definition to include any businessperson, club owner, or promoter on whose property or at whose events illicit drugs are used or sold.

The legislation was clearly aimed at squashing the rave scene, but drug reformers and civil libertarians quickly cried foul at the law's broad language, which could apply to any use of property, no matter how "temporary," potentially including citizens who use drugs in their own homes. Representatives from the ACLU, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and other reformers took their ire to Capitol Hill last fall when they staged a rave dance-rally in the halls of Congress. Shortly thereafter, the bill began to hemorrhage sponsors and then quietly disappeared.

That is, until this month, when it cropped up again attached to an omnibus domestic-security bill -- the Justice Enhancement and Domestic Security Act of 2003, sponsored by Tom Daschle, D-S.D. -- in a section on "Crack-House Statute Amendments." The ploy -- attaching a controversial provision to a fuzzy-bunny bill that no one is likely to vote against -- is common. Indeed, the revamped RAVE Act has been dumped into legislation whose other provisions would help protect missing and exploited children, senior citizens, and rape victims, and would combat telemarketing fraud and identity theft. But RAVE wasn't hidden well enough to evade the eyes of drug reformers, who are planning once again to protest.

For more info, check out the <a href="http://www.drugpolicy.org" target="_blank">Drug Policy Alliance Web site.</a>

Despite the disappointing failure of last November's various drug-reform ballot measures, reformers have upped the ante and now have medical-marijuana, decriminalization, or industrial-hemp legislation pending in 13 states, including Texas. In an e-mail addressed to supporters of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML director and founder Keith Stroup says the current legislative season has been the biggest for drug reformers since the 1970s. Currently, decriminalization bills are pending in Connecticut, Oklahoma, and California -- where the penalty for possession of up to one ounce would be reduced from a misdemeanor to an "infraction," akin to a traffic ticket. Legislators in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Montana, Maryland, Arkansas, Wyoming, and New York are all considering medical-marijuana bills. In Maine, a proposal that would legalize the cultivation of industrial-grade hemp is making its way through the legislative process. So far this year NORML has only noted one legislative failure; on March 7, the New Mexico Legislature defeated a medical-marijuana bill by a floor vote of 46 to 20.

Over on Congress Avenue, Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, has filed Texas's lone drug reform bill of the session, HB 715, which would decriminalize possession of up to one ounce of pot. The bill would make such possession a Class C misdemeanor (punishable by up to a $500 fine) and would forbid the state from suspending the license of anyone convicted of the charge. Howard Wooldridge, a former Michigan cop turned lobbyist for Texas NORML, said he is optimistic about the bill's passage. Currently, Texas NORML is courting the favor of House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee Chairman Terry Keel, R-Austin, a lawyer and former Travis Co. sheriff.

Wooldridge says that so far, his work at the Lege has been aimed at education. While cops are out harassing drivers, looking for small amounts of marijuana, he said, "drunk drivers are speeding by and killing people." So far, he said, the legislators he's talked to have been receptive to this train of thought. And if they fear that some constituent will label them as "soft on crime," he points them to a recent Time magazine poll that shows 70% of the population supports decriminalization for up to an ounce of pot. "I am trying to give these people some backbone to do the right thing," he said. "Win, lose, or draw, this will be worth it."

Weed Watch
<a href="http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread15714.shtml" target="_blank">http ://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread15714.shtml</A>
Source: Austin Chronicle (TX)
Author: Jordan Smith
Published: March 14, 2003 - Vol.22 No.28
Contact: louis@auschron.com
Website: <a href="http://www.auschron.com" target="_blank">http ://www.auschron.com</A>
Bookmark: <a href="http://www.mapinc.org/raves.htm" target="_blank">http ://www.mapinc.org/raves.htm</A> (Raves)
Bookmark: <a href="http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm" target="_blank">http ://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm</A> (Ecstasy)

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ACLU: <a href="http://www.aclu.org" target="_blank">http ://www.aclu.org</A>
NORML: <a href="http://www.norml.org" target="_blank">http ://www.norml.org</A>
Activist Wants Drug Reforms, Not War
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<a href="http://www.drugpolicy.org/homepage.cfm" target="_blank">A C T I O N A L E R T</a>

<a href="http://www.nomoredrugwar.or g/music" target="_blank">7 ACTIONS TO PROTECT LIVE MUSIC</a>

<a href="http://www.nomoredrugwar.or g/music/whattodo.htm" target="_blank">***S EVEN THINGS TO DO ABOUT IT</a>

<a href="http://www.drugpolicy.org/takeaction" target="_blank">***C ONGRESS WANTS TO TAKE AWAY YOUR RIGHTS</a>

Your right to dance, sing, DJ, listen to good music, and run your own business is under attack. The federal government may soon have the power to shut down dance clubs, rock, country, and Hip Hop concerts, gay and lesbian bars, and anything else federal officials don't like.

As you may know, Congress is considering three bills that could land many event promoters, bar and nightclub owners, and stadium owners in jail if even one person uses drugs at their events. If enacted, these bills could prevent you from hearing your favorite band or DJ live. Every musical style would be affected.

The three dangerous bills are the RAVE Act (H.R. 718), the CLEAN-UP Act (H.R. 834), and the Illicit Drugs Anti-Proliferation Act (S. 226). While aimed at the very real problem of substance abuse, the bills go too far by punishing business owners for the drug offenses of their customers and threatening to shut down concerts, circuit parties, dance clubs, and other forms of entertainment. Business owners could be jailed for enacting health measures that save lives - such as teaching their staff first-aid. You could even go to jail for 20 years for throwing a party in your own home.

Music and the War on Drugs
<a href="http://www.drugpolicy.org/communities/raveact" target="_blank">http ://www.drugpolicy.org/communities/raveact</A>

web sites that we can go to to express our disaproval of this new bill <a href="http://actioncenter.drugpol icy.org/action/index.asp?step=2&ite m=1448" target="_blank">http ://actioncenter.drugpol icy.org/action/index.asp?step=2&ite m=1448</A>

The Alchemind Society
<a href="http://www.alchemind.org" target="_blank">http ://www.alchemind.org</A>
COGNITIVE LIBERTY LINKS
<a href="http://www.alchemind.org/DLL/links.htm" target="_blank">http ://www.alchemind.org/DLL/links.htm</A>

Stop the New Patriot Act
<a href="http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=1 1904&c=206" target="_blank">http ://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=1 1904&c=206</A>

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<a href="http://search.aclu.org/AdvancedSearchResult s.cfm" target="_blank">http ://search.aclu.org/AdvancedSearchResult s.cfm</A>
<a href="http://www.aclu.org/DrugPolicy/DrugPolicyList.cfm?c =185" target="_blank">http ://www.aclu.org/DrugPolicy/DrugPolicyList.cfm?c =185</A>

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Citing Free Speech Rights, From EMDEF NEWS
<a href="http://www.aclu.org/DrugPolicy/DrugPolicy.cfm?ID=97 00&c=185" target="_blank">Loui siana Court Rejects Government's Extremist Tactics</a> in Culture War Against Raves

NEW ORLEANS--In a ruling the American Civil Liberties Union called a "major victory" for free speech rights, a federal judge on February 5, permanently blocked federal agents from banning masks, pacifiers, and glow sticks at a local dance venue as part of its nationwide war against rave concerts.

"Today's decision should send a message to government that the way to combat illegal substance abuse is not through intimidation and nonsensical laws," said Graham Boyd, Director of the ACLU's Drug Policy Litigation Project, which filed a challenge to the ban on behalf of rave enthusiasts and performers.

Raves are electronic music concerts that the government seeks to close because some attendees use the drug Ecstasy. But that approach, Boyd said, is tantamount to shutting down rock concerts in the 1960s or jazz clubs in the 1920s because some people are using drugs.

The court today agreed. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous said that while there is a "legitimate government interest" in curtailing illegal drug use, "the government cannot ban inherently legal objects that are used in expressive communication because a few people use the same legal item to enhance the effects of an illegal substance."

Judge Porteous also noted that "there is no conclusive evidence that eliminating the banned items has reduced the amount of ecstasy use at raves." And in a particularly stern warning against the Attorney General's drug war tactics, he concluded, "when the First Amendment right of Free Speech is violated by the Government in the name of the War on Drugs, and when that First Amendment violation is arguably not even helping in the War on Drugs, it is the duty of the Courts to enjoin the government from violating the rights of innocent people."

Joe Cook, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana, welcomed the courtís unambiguous defense of free speech rights. "We the people should rejoice in this blow for our rights and not allow any of our freedoms to become a casualty in the war on drugs," he said.

The ACLU filed its challenge to the policy in August 2001, after the Drug Enforcement Agency forced the owners of a prominent New Orleans dance venue to ban face masks, glow sticks and pacifiers from their facility, saying that the items constituted "drug paraphernalia." As a result of the ban, rave attendees were forced to throw away or have confiscated personal effects in order to gain entry into dance events given at the venue.

Boyd said that the government has been holding workshops around the country citing the New Orleans case as an example of how to shut down a rave. The government has also encouraged local prosecutors to charge rave promoters as drug dealers under state and federal "crack house" laws and to engage in excessive enforcement of parking permits and other local laws in order to disrupt the events.

"Today's ruling tells law enforcement agents that if you want to target drug use at raves, you've got to play by the rules," Boyd said. "Go after the drug dealers, not the entertainers and dancers and people who are there to enjoy the show."

The ACLU brought its case against the government on behalf of local rave enthusiasts, including a former member of the armed forces and an insurance agent whose masks and glow sticks were confiscated at a rave last summer, and an internationally renowned performance group that faced cancellation of an act incorporating glow sticks.

An <a href="http://www.aclu.org/DrugPolicy/DrugPolicy.cfm?ID=97 00&c=185" target="_blank">ACLU online feature on this case</a> , including links to court papers, is available.



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