U.S. SENATORS TAKE ON RAVES

Government's Move A Lot Like Local Effort

Decrying raves as havens for illicit drugs, some U.S. senators want to
expand a federal law to zero in on the all-night dance parties where, they
say, Ecstasy tags along with the techno beats.

Sound familiar? In New Orleans, the government's rage against raves came in
the form of the U.S. attorney's office and the so-called "crack-house law,"
which can mean criminal charges against those whose buildings are used to
cook up, shoot up or serve up drugs.

Filed in January 2001, the case against local promoters who held parties at
the State Palace Theater on Canal Street ended six months later with a plea
bargain and a corporation called Barbecue of New Orleans paying a $100,000
fine.

After the American Civil Liberties Union sued, a federal judge ruled
unconstitutional the ban on glow sticks and pacifiers -- drug
paraphernalia, according to prosecutors -- that originally was part of the
plea deal. The U.S. attorney's office has appealed.

But like the music that fuels rave subculture, this song hasn't ended yet.
The Senate this fall is poised to consider the Rave Act of 2002: Reducing
Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy. With a few new phrases, the bill would
expand the crack-house law to help prosecutors go after party promoters,
its sponsors say. Introduced in June by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, the
bill skated through the Senate Judiciary Committee with a unanimous vote.
Ravers and the ACLU call it an unconstitutional swipe at the
laser-light-bathed dance floors, while the bill's sponsors say it's aimed
only at drug pushers.

"This bill is not about stopping people from having fun or expressing
themselves through a particular form of dance," said Chip Unruh, a Biden
spokesman. "Unless you're throwing a party for the purpose of illegal drug
use and profit, you have nothing to worry about."

Participants in the rave scene also are offended by a House bill that seeks
to hold "promoters of drug-oriented entertainment" liable for hosting
events at which drugs are prevalent. But the Rave Act in the Senate has
gained much more ground.

While introducing the bill June 18, Biden said the legislation comes after
a recent hearing by the Caucus on International Narcotics Control on the
effects of Ecstasy and the rave phenomenon. Federal cases against rave
promoters under the crack-house law have had mixed results, he said,
showing the need to tailor the law more precisely.

The proposed Rave Act makes clear that a rave may be held indoors or
outdoors, and the space may be rented or owned by the host. It also would
authorize nearly $6 million for the DEA to create a new job in each state
for someone to work with local officials to reduce the demand for Ecstasy
and other drugs through treatment programs, Biden said.

But the bill's name speaks volumes, critics say. Graham Boyd, an attorney
for the ACLU who successfully argued here against the government's proposed
glow-stick ban, said it specifically targets a type of music and dance.

"Since those activities are protected by the First Amendment, that amounts
to selective prosecution, and it's illegal," Boyd said.

The New Orleans rave prosecution, led by then-U.S. Attorney Eddie Jordan,
appears to be the inspiration for the Senate bill. Before 2001, the
crack-house law was reserved for the people behind its namesake: landlords
who knew their blighted buildings were neighborhood drug kitchens or
shooting galleries. The federal case here was a novel application of the
law, the first time anyone tried to use it to go after people not directly
involved with drug dealing.

Prosecutors never accused State Palace Theater manager Robert Brunet or
rave promoter Donnie Estopinal of handling drugs; rather, they were charged
with knowingly maintaining a place where others sold and consumed them.

"What I think the Senate is doing now is basically taking the State Palace
strategy and trying to write that into law, giving it the official legal
blessing," Boyd said.

The bill implies that many raves promote Ecstasy and that the hosts sell
glow sticks, menthol inhalers and pacifiers to enhance the illegal highs.

"Each year, tens of thousands of young people are initiated into the drug
culture at rave parties or events," according to congressional findings
attached to the bill. The trafficking of Ecstasy, GHB and Ketamine "is
deeply embedded in the rave culture."

As prosecutors in New Orleans claimed, the Rave Act says bottled water and
ultra air-conditioned "chill rooms" cater to drug users.

Fans of electronic music cringe at such statements. Drug-free dancers get
overheated, too, and the glow sticks are aesthetic pleasures, they say.

But often what ravers consider an ounce of prevention, prosecutors call a
pound of guilt. Promoters of large-scale raves have hired ambulance
services to sit on guard outside as a precaution -- a step that led New
York officials to shut down a popular club in 2000, saying the medical help
proved the owners knew the place was crawling with drugs.

In New Orleans, when the plea deal was announced, prosecutors declared they
had made the State Palace Theater a safer place for young people. Overdoses
declined dramatically after the undercover investigation and indictments,
they said.

Eddie Jordan, who had left the U.S. attorney's office by the time of the
plea deal, said the point was always stopping adults who knowingly provide
illegal drugs to minors at the all-night parties.

"That was what got to me," Jordan said.

One of his targets, rave promoter Donnie Estopinal, concedes that in the
end, drug dealers were driven out of the State Palace Theater. But in the
process, he said, law-abiding people like himself were dragged into a
lengthy investigation,

"We want to stop the drug dealers, too. We just want to be able to do our
events," he said from his home in Columbus, Ohio. "It's scary that they
could use that to come after law-abiding people.

"They could've come in there with their DEA shirts on. That might have
chased off the drug dealers," said Estopinal, against whom charges were
dropped when his company agreed to a plea. "Instead, they prosecuted us. It
did accomplish something. They just went about it the wrong way."

Susan Mainzer, CEO of a marketing firm in Los Angeles that caters to the
young and hip, said the lawmakers behind the Rave Act simply are off the mark.

The industry and rave fans are rallying against the bill.

"They're trying to legislate what they couldn't otherwise enforce through
current legal channels," Mainzer said. "How can you say you're not
targeting a group of people when you name the law after them?"

Biden's description of raves as drug dens proves he's never been to one,
Mainzer said.

At age 34, she believes she represents the rave scene right along with the
teenager whose social life revolves around the weekend parties. "I own a
business, I own a home," she said. "I'm a full-on grown-up, and I pay a lot
of taxes."