CITIES CRACK DOWN ON RAVES

Rising Popularity Prompts Backlash Over Drug Use

NEW ORLEANS -- They began more than a decade ago in remote fields and
abandoned warehouses, out-of-the-way places where teens and young adults
grooved all night to ear-splitting electronic music. Today, rave dance
parties are big business, held in downtown nightclubs and theaters by
promoters who charge $30 or more for admission.

Ravers say the scene is still all about the music. But a rising number of
critics say it's also about rampant drug use, mostly involving the illegal
stimulant Ecstasy. The critics accuse party organizers of looking the other
way as dealers peddle pills and stoned kids trash the neighborhoods where
raves are held.

Here and in several U.S. cities, there are growing complaints that raves
have become a public nuisance. In a twist to the "Not In My Backyard"
debates that have long shaped government decisions, New Orleans and a few
other cities have used the federal statute designed to shutter crack houses
to try to shut down raves or force them to clean up their act.

Besides tapping the federal law to accuse rave promoters of fostering drug
dealing, local, state and federal authorities have used anti- noise
ordinances and police anti-drug dragnets to combat Ecstasy use at raves.
Ecstasy is not nearly as popular as marijuana, but its rise as a party drug
has made it a priority for health officials, who cite studies indicating
that the stimulant can cause brain damage and neurological problems.

Officials have had mixed success prosecuting rave promoters under the 1986
crack-house statute. Such charges can be tough to prove, and the law is
aimed at the owners of residential properties where there is continuous
drug activity, not transient concerts or parties.

But Congress is considering a plan to change that: A bill before the U.S.
Senate would specifically link raves to the crack-house law, which holds
property owners liable if they knowingly allow illegal drug activity on
their premises. Owners or promoters found liable could face up to 20 years
in prison or be fined $250,000 or twice the gross receipts derived from
each violation, whichever is more.

The assaults on raves have prodded groups of young people to political
action. While acknowledging there is some drug use at raves, supporters of
the parties say that officials should not automatically equate raves with
Ecstasy, which has hallucinogenic properties that give users a euphoric
feeling.

New Orleans' efforts to stop drug use at a local rave venue reflects the
increasingly aggressive approach authorities across the nation are taking
toward raves -- as well as some officials' frustration in trying to apply
the crack-house law to rave promoters.

U.S. and local officials here have focused on the State Palace Theatre,
where in 1998 a young woman died of an Ecstasy overdose. Police learned
that when the theater on the edge of the raucous French Quarter held its
monthly rave, local hospitals were swamped with young people who had
overdosed on Ecstasy and other drugs.

After authorities found evidence of drug use at the State Palace, a federal
grand jury indicted the owner, managers and promoters of the theater's
parties in January 2001. The defendants were accused of violating the
crack-house statute, which required prosecutors to prove that the rave
organizers were allowing the operation of a venue for the sale or use of drugs.

Prosecutors acknowledged that filing the charges under the statute was a
reach, but it was "the only statute that seemed to fit," says Al Winters,
the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case.

The company that leased the State Palace for the raves eventually agreed to
plead guilty to violating the crack-house statute, pay a $100,000 fine and
promise to increase security and search partygoers for drugs. The rave
promoters who lease the theater say they wanted to avoid a lengthy and
expensive court battle -- and to continue holding raves.

More Security, But Drugs Remain

Today, raves at the State Palace are as popular as ever. And despite the
increased security and ongoing police patrols, a visit to the theater on a
rave night makes it clear that drugs remain a part of the scene.

On Sept. 28, a party called "Wild Planet" drew about 1,500 teens from as
far away as Alabama, a two-hour drive away. Each paid up to $32 to get in.
Outside the theater, undercover cops in jeans and T- shirts mingled with
teens waiting to get in, watching as some of the youths sold pills or
shared them with friends. Before the party ended about 6 a.m. the next day,
more than a dozen teens were arrested.

The owners of the decrepit theater had their own security staff checking
bags at the door, but smuggling tiny Ecstasy pills into the party
apparently wasn't difficult. Just inside the theater's door, in
semi-darkness broken only by the white light of a flashing strobe, a man in
his early 20s offered Ecstasy for $20 a pill. Some particularly active
ravers admitted being high on Ecstasy when they arrived.

"Security (at such raves) is really lax," says Louisiana State Trooper Kim
McDuffie, who has worked undercover at raves. Like other officers, she
questioned rave promoters' commitment to significantly crack down on drugs,
which would risk annoying partygoers. "If the promoters were serious about
keeping the drugs out," McDuffie said, "they'd have uniformed police
officers" inside the raves.

Rob Brunet, a booking agent for the raves, says the State Palace's searches
are thorough. "If the kids are on something," he says, "I've got to assume
they are taking it before they get here."

Other jurisdictions have taken aim at raves -- not always successfully --
through a variety of tactics:

* U.S. prosecutors in Florida last year charged the owners and manager of
Club La Vela, a popular hangout in Panama City Beach, with violating the
federal crack-house law. Several employees who had been caught dealing
drugs at the club testified against their employer, but a jury acquitted
the club's executives of promoting drug sales and use.

The club recently expanded and now has 11 theme rooms, including one
designed for electronic music and raves, which typically involve strobe
lights, black lights and neon glow sticks to enhance dancers' psychedelic
experience.

"The prosecution was putting music and lighting and glow sticks on trial,"
says lawyer Todd Foster, who represented the club's manager. "They tried to
make techno music synonymous with drugs."

* The most successful prosecution of a rave enterprise using the
crack-house law began with the arrest in October 2001 of 16 people linked
to the rave scene in Boise. For 18 months, police had amassed evidence
linking Ecstasy's appearance in the city to raves that were held in a local
warehouse. Rave promoters hired security to keep drugs out of the parties
so the promoters' own dealers could sell drugs there exclusively, U.S.
Attorney Tom Moss said.

"We learned that they were basically glorified drug parties," Moss said.
"It's a classic crack-house (type) situation."

Authorities arrested 29 people on drug charges. Three -- two promoters and
a disk jockey -- were convicted under the crack-house statute and received
federal prison sentences. Now the rave scene in Boise, if it exists, has
gone underground, Boise Mayor Brent Coles says. "It's known throughout the
illegal drug industry that in Boise, you're going to be observed and
prosecuted," Coles says. "It's no longer profitable to hold a rave in Boise."

The most significant assault on raves could come from Congress. A Senate
bill called the Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy (RAVE) Act
attempts to close loopholes in the crack-house law that have made it
difficult for prosecutors to use it to shut down raves.

The crack-house statute targeted run-down buildings and owners who allowed
their properties to become havens for drug dealers. Raves often are
transient affairs, moving from warehouses to theaters to nightclubs. The
new legislation would make it easier for prosecutors to go after the
promoters of events, rather than have to focus on a certain location.

The bill has been passed by a Senate committee and is on the Senate's
consent agenda, which means it could be passed without a recorded vote at
any time. The House is considering a similar bill.

Ravers, disk jockeys and party promoters say that if the bill becomes law,
it would suffocate the budding electronic music genre. Rave promoters say
they would be reluctant to feature music that might draw interest from
anti-drug agents.

The ACLU says the bill violates the First Amendment right to expression by
targeting a form of music and criminalizing a culture. The Electronic Music
Defense and Education Fund, a group that formed to help the State Palace
promoters fight the charges against them, calls the proposed law and the
government's approach to raves "misguided."

"It's not going to stop raves . . . , and it's not going to stop people
from obtaining drugs," says Susan Mainzer, spokeswoman for the fund and
owner of a company that promotes electronic music artists.

Rave support groups have used Internet chat rooms, Web sites and e- mail to
collect more than 10,000 signatures for a petition protesting the Senate bill.

In September, they held protest raves in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New
York and Washington, D.C. In what perhaps was a reflection of the groups'
political inexperience, they held the D.C. protest the day Congress was in
New York to honor victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The protest at
the U.S. Capitol drew several hundred ravers.

Camille Sevigny, 25, a student at the University of Maryland and a
part-time disk jockey from Adelphi, Md., says he's not sure why lawmakers
have focused on raves. "You listen to about half the rap songs and they're
not rapping about marijuana, they're rapping about Ecstasy," he says. "I
agree drugs are wrong, but you're going about it the wrong way."

"We don't need drugs to get energy and dance all night," added Rob
Erickson, 18, a high school senior from Fairfax County, Va., who had dyed
his hair lavender on one side and Big Bird yellow on the other. "I can
listen to this music and vibe off it."

But anti-drug specialists say rave music and drugs are inseparable, and
that the rave culture is largely defined by Ecstasy.

Jim Mock, a former police officer from Torrance, Calif. whose company, Drug
ID, offers courses in drug awareness, identification and spotting people
under the influence, has assessed drug use at rock concerts, Gothic parties
and raves.

"At raves, it runs at least twice what it does in other scenes," Mock said.
"The only thing comparable to raves (are) Grateful Dead" concerts, where he
said use of the hallucinogen LSD is common.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a co-sponsor of the bill in that chamber,
rejects criticism that it targets music and other forms of expression.
"There's nothing wrong with dances. But if they are a cover for the illicit
sale of drugs and the person holding the rave knows it, you can't tolerate
that."

Hospitals Busy On Rave Nights

New Orleans is home to around-the-clock partying in the French Quarter and
bars that serve mixed drinks in cups to go. But officials and health
specialists continue to be taken aback by the flood of overdosed teens that
hits hospitals during big raves.

Teens who take Ecstasy and other drugs arrive "in waves," sometimes barely
breathing, says Keith Van Meter, section head for emergency medicine at
Charity Hospital, the medical center closest to the State Palace theater.
"Sometimes it'll be a catastrophe if there's a particularly strong batch of
drugs going around."

On some rave nights, doctors at Charity will see as many as 15 overdosed
ravers, Van Meter says. "Most frustrating is the contention by the
promoters that there is nothing wrong. It's maddening."

Several hours into the theater's September rave, at about 4:30 a.m., a
young woman collapsed on the dance floor. A security guard called
paramedics, who carried her through a side door to a damp, garbage- strewn
sidewalk. She was alone. Paramedics arrived and quickly gave her oxygen.
She was taken to a hospital a bit later.

Inside the theater, the music played on.