[Dynagroove] the RAVE Act

[JAMES ALDERWOOD]

THE 
  Reducing Americans Vulnerability to Ecstasy 
    ACT

Sponsored by your elected officials..

Joseph Biden
Charles Grassley
Orrin Hatch
Joseph Lieberman
Patrick Leahy

(What ARE they thinking?)

IMHO this bill doesn't really say much, except that a remote desert location
can be considered a "crack house." Have you read it? This is the infamous
Crack House law, amended as the RAVE Act:


§ 856. MAINTAINING DRUG INVOLVED PREMISES
(a) ... it shall be unlawful to - 

(1) knowingly open, lease, rent, use, or maintain any place, whether
permanently or temporarily, for the PURPOSE of manufacturing, distributing, or
using any controlled substance; 

(2) manage or control any place, whether permanently or temporarily, either as
an owner, lessee, agent, employee, occupant, or mortgagee, and knowingly and
intentionally rent, lease, profit from, or make available for use, with or
without compensation, the place for the PURPOSE of unlawfully manufacturing,
storing, distributing, or using a controlled substance. 
...

Summary: if you intended drugs to be at your party, maybe even if you put drug
references on your flyer, you might be fucked.

Note the use of the word PURPOSE, defined as: 
(1) The object toward which one strives or for which something exists; an aim
or a goal. 
(2) A result or effect that is intended or desired; an intention.

They mustn't be referring to the purpose of certain attendees, like drug
dealers and etards. Does anyone have any idea how the government will go about
proving that the PURPOSE of the promoters or venue owners was to make a place
available for drugs? They would have to BE dealers, or be in cahoots with
dealers. Or maybe just design the flyer with trippy colors? In the New Orleans
case, they tried to equate water bottles, glowsticks, and pacifiers with drug
paraphernalia. They also tried to say that having medical staff on the
premises of Club La Vela indicated the promoters' encouragement of drug use.
Ridiculous, eh? That's why they lost.

This amendment could create headaches for promoters and venue owners, but it
will not intimidate them. It's nothing but a slightly revised, renamed, highly
publicized version of a statute that doesn't have any meaning for law abiding
promoters. You'd have to be promoting events AND trafficking or otherwise
purposefully inviting drugs into them. 

Interesting how this problem parallels music piracy. You can legitimately go
after the people ORGANIZING an illegal activity (i.e. Napster), but if their
purpose is not illegal (i.e. b3), you just have a bunch of individuals running
around BREAKIN THE LAW. This is one of the rare times where I LOVE the system.
They seem to control everything, but they can't control YOU. If they pass the
next thing you're about to read, take it as a cue that we are moving toward a
police state.

So far we've been skirting the issue of civil liberties. Now, are you ready
for something that actually IS pretty scary? How bout section 305 of HR3782,
another proposed amendment to the Controlled Substances Act. This is actually
a rider on a proposal to clean up the country's meth problem. READ THIS:


SEC. 416A. PROMOTERS OF DRUG ORIENTED ENTERTAINMENT.

Whoever knowingly promotes any rave, dance, music, or other entertainment
event, that takes place under circumstances where the promoter knows or
reasonably ought to know that a controlled substance will be used or
distributed in violation of Federal law or the law of the place were the event
is held, shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned for
not more than 9 years, or both. 

Sponsored by Reps: Doug Ose, Mark Souder, Chris Cannon, George Radanovich, Joe
Baca, Doug Bereuter, Shelly Berkely, Roy Blunt, Gary Condit, Ben Gilman, Sam
Graves, Wally Herger, Stephen Horn, George Nethercutt, Thomas Osborne, Loretta
Sanchez, Ellen Tauscher, Todd Tiahrt, Bob Goodlatte. There are also 59
cosponsors.


I don't know what the reps are thinking, because (as lawmakers) I can't
imagine they think people should be held accountable for other people's
crimes. There's no coercion or even suggestion for partygoers to eat drugs,
only the influence of their peers. Classifying entertainment as
"drug-oriented" because there are likely to be some people on drugs.. is very
bad. In this sense, a movie theater is a crack house, and so is Disneyland.

I like the senators more. Considering the outcry over such minimal amendments
to a 20 year old statute, and the fact they dubbed it the *RAVE* Act, maybe
their purpose is just to raise awareness. Which they should. They should also
raise their own awareness that the tradition of drug use predates recorded
history. They could try a different approach to protect the younguns, like
curfew enforcement.


So the answer to the question, kids.. 

>> so how do [you] convince the politicians that it 
>> isn't about the drugs?

You CAN'T, because they didn't ask you. Alas, they will begin losing their
misguided wars. Isn't it striking that America's sense of individual
responsibility is so feeble that promoters would be stuck with the burden of
law enforcement? Blame is a sign of the times. They don't know what to do
except try and turn us against each other. Meanwhile, unbridled capitalists
are out plundering on the high seas of globalization, busy redefining slavery,
bankrupting countries, and privatizing the world's water supply. George Bush
postures and asks, "Why do they hate us?" while trying to garner support for a
war condemned by almost all world leaders. 

Despite all of your tax dollars spent on "defense," even the disenfranchised
have found a way to fight, and this "enemy's" value for human life makes a
mockery of our own. Did anyone watch a recent Nightline, in which interviews
around the world echoed this same anti-American sentiment? Yet our government
lumbers, slumbers, stubbornly clutches their ineffectual, wasteful,
destructive policies, and refuses (or doesn't know how) to properly address
the truly insidious societal ills. What kind of nation is this, where powerful
corporations are run by crooks, where global dominance supercedes
environmental sustainability; where drugs get ACTION, while poverty and unrest
get lip service, or bombs. We act as if there is no relationship among these
facts. 

Luckily, only on their best days are they crafty enough to turn good citizens
with a benign and Constitutionally ordained purpose, into criminals. Strong
effort, Congressmen and women, but we need leaders who inspire us. Perhaps
your policies will call for revolt, or perhaps they will cause collapse. But
hear our voice, and we can settle this like a true democracy. The warning
signs are here now. We can choose the path of wisdom, or follow the rabbit
hole down, down, down. 

Our peace loving culture has already established itself as a force of change.
Look around you and see that the world needs our light. We would only be lazy
not to put it on them. E is for empathy, not apathy.

Give me PLUR or give me death!


JAMES ALDERWOOD