RAVE PROMOTERS FEEL THE HEAT

With Drugs Rampant, Focus Is On Intent

NEW ORLEANS -- When a U.S. attorney brought federal narcotics charges in
January against three men who promoted raves in New Orleans, the news
reverberated through the world of electronica like techno beats in a
sweat-soaked warehouse.

Using a 1980s federal law aimed at closing down crack houses, the
indictment blamed the promoters not for dealing drugs, but for making the
State Palace Theatre on Canal Street available for the use of drugs such as
ecstasy and LSD during the all-night dance parties.

Using the Internet and chat rooms, ravers nationwide protested that the
indictments are just the latest attack on a misunderstood music scene. The
legal world also took notice. The New Orleans case is a novel use of the
statute that some experts say U.S. Attorney Eddie Jordan may be stretching
too far.

"The statute was really intended to get at residences," said John Howard,
who teaches law at Purchase College in New York. "It wasn't meant for
people going to Madison Square Garden or the Palace Theatre, but the guy
who had the house on the corner where there's dope-dealing."

But federal authorities say the New Orleans raves weren't much more
wholesome. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration linked about 400 drug
overdoses to the city's raves, and hospital officials backed up the image
of ravers crashing into emergency rooms after taking drugs.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse has issued a "drug alert bulletin" on
ecstasy and other so-called club drugs such as GHB and ketamine. Ecstasy
now shares the same narcotic classification as heroin, putting it on the
DEA's priority list, and federal legislation is in the works to increase
prison terms for ecstasy-related crimes.

In congressional testimony last year, DEA Special Agent George Cazenavette
said New Orleans was experiencing an "alarming increase" in club drugs use
by teens and young adults. Drugs such as ecstasy "have become such an
integral part of the rave circuit that there no longer appears to be an
attempt to conceal their use," he said. "Rather, drugs are sold and used
openly at these parties."

The indictments charge that Robert Brunet -- who managed the State Palace
Theatre -- his brother Brian Brunet and James (Donnie) Estopinal, a
nationally known promoter and disc jockey, knew drugs were readily
available to the young dancers but still kept holding raves.

All three men pleaded innocent to the charges. They are free on $10,000
bond each. Their trial is scheduled to begin March 26.

Jordan contends he can successfully prosecute the men under a federal law
known as the so-called crack house statute, which makes it illegal to own
or maintain property for drug sales. The Brunets and Estopinal face up to
20 years in prison and $500,000 in fines if convicted.

The statute went into effect in 1986 amid the nation's crack epidemic. But
the New Orleans case is the first time the crack house law has been used in
connection with raves.

Some lawyers are skeptical about the case. To win in court, they said,
prosecutors must prove the promoters knowingly made the theater available
for drug sales or use and had control over the venue.

Howard said one key question is just how much control the rave promoters
have over sprawling crowds of dancers. "I might have control over the
place, but do I have control over 2,000 people?" Howard asked.

Precedent is sketchy

The law has met with varying results in federal appeals courts. In a 1995
case in Dallas, Jarvis Wright was convicted under the statute, even though
there was no evidence that he paid rent on an apartment where police
videotaped drug sales or that he ever lived there.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which also sets precedents for
Louisiana and Mississippi, agreed with jurors that Wright had control over
the apartment because he stored his drugs there.

In another case, however, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned
the conviction of a woman in Tulsa, Okla.

In 1993, police found large sums of cash, handguns and traces of cocaine in
Guessinia Verner's home and arrested her on drug charges. But the appeals
court found there was not enough evidence to show she was maintaining her
house for a drug-dealing enterprise and overturned her conviction.

The 10th Circuit decision said the property in question must be proven as a
place of business with evidence of "tools of the trade."

But not all drug cultures use the same tools. In announcing the New Orleans
indictments, Jordan pointed to rave standards such as so-called chill
rooms, bottled water and pacifiers -- the latter, to ease the
teeth-grinding that ecstasy can cause.

"Ingestion of ecstasy also causes the users to become dehydrated and suffer
hypothermia," Jordan said in a news release announcing the indictments.
"Knowing this, the theater sold bottled water, which was sold at inflated
prices, and also provided 'chill rooms' where the rave patrons cooled down."

But what officials such as Jordan see as acceptance and encouragement of
drug use, ravers applaud as responsible promotion.

Many promoters take innovative steps to make their shows safe from harm,
whether its source is drug abuse or natural dehydration from hours of hard
dancing.

One New York nightspot offers free water fountains that run continually.
The club also adds liquid nitrogen to fog machines to help cool the room
temperature and hires an ambulance crew to wait outside on weekend nights.

"Admitting drug use is going on inside is the responsible thing to do,"
said Emanuel Sferios, founder and director of DanceSafe, a nonprofit group
with 19 chapters nationwide that is dedicated to safeguarding the rave
community.

"It's not promoting it; it's not condoning it."

Director Jon Reiss had never been to a rave before he made the 1999
documentary "Better Living Through Circuitry," a whirlwind look inside the
U.S. rave scene. What he found behind the flash and the noise amazed him.

"I was amazed at how many kids weren't doing drugs, weren't drinking and
were vociferous against drugs," he said.

Yes, there were drugs circulating, but no more than at any other music
scene, Reiss said.

If promoters can be busted, rave advocates worry that the scene will be
pushed back underground into the abandoned warehouses of a decade past.
That picture includes no free water fountains or fire codes, only crowds
and music and risk, they say.

"Holding promoters accountable for the fact that young people use drugs
when they go out dancing is counterproductive, because drug use is not
confined to the rave dance community," Reiss said. "It occurs at rock
concerts and sporting events."