BE DELIBERATE ON RAVE LAW

Possible county crackdown on all-night dance parties could be fought with
laws already on the books.

County Council's concern about an increasing number of rave parties in
Greenville is understandable and well-placed. But creating an ordinance
that seeks to ban the all-night parties could be legally messy and perhaps
unnecessary.

If local law enforcement can make a credible case that cracking down on the
sale and use of the designer drugs associated with raves is impossible
through existing law, then the council should toughen the rules which
govern this sort of entertainment.

If not, the council should resist changing the law to target raves. Such
attempts by other communities have sometimes had unintended consequences on
functions that do not carry the criminal baggage of rave parties. Many
ordinances have failed to stand up to legal challenges. Therefore, council
should study the mistakes and successes of other cities. When it does, it
will find that regulation through strict permitting has proven far more
effective than adopting new criminal penalties to eliminate raves altogether.

Rave parties sometimes become a combustible mix of teen-agers, loud music,
laser lights, illicit drug use and violence. Out-of-control rave parties
have been known to exact a heavy toll on law enforcement and emergency
medical services.

Designer drugs such as ecstasy, a stimulant, and GHB, a depressant, thrive
on the rave party circuit. Law enforcement officials say emergency room
visitors who have overdosed on these "club drugs" often arrive from rave
parties. Both drugs are said to have the effect of heightening the
intensity of these high-energy parties, making raves, as much as the drugs,
a target.

Thus far, the Greenville County Sheriff's Office is effectively using
existing law to find and prosecute drug offenders at raves. Public nuisance
laws have been a reliable tool for Greenville law enforcement. This
strategy often takes time to develop. However, nuisance laws have led to
the eventual shutdown of businesses that create an atmosphere for drug
crimes to occur.

Councilman Joe Dill has proposed "doing something" about raves and council
may discuss this at its August 12 meeting. If council does adopt a law,
this community would be best served by requiring strict permitting for
raves. That way the county can require promoters to have police presence in
order to get a permit for a rave. That would be a good start to regulating
these parties.

Not only is an outright ban problematic legally, stricter laws in areas
that have such bans have run these parties further underground and made
them less accessible to law enforcement.

If this county adopts an anti-rave ordinance, it must do so deliberately
with the idea of regulating raves. No ordinance is going to stop teen-agers
from gathering. But these events can be made safer. And the drugs can be
driven away. This can be done through regulation, which would require a
strong law enforcement presence in order to get a permit for a rave.