RETHINKING THE RAVE

Keep The Music, Ditch The Drugs

Music has the "charms to soothe" but let's stop pretending that's why 15,000
people gather at weekend "raves." They gather for the high-decibel frenzy,
the pulsating rhythms, the laser lights streaking across bodies heaving in
dance -- and the drugs.

Credit promoters of last weekend's 24-hour Zen Festival at the Coconut Grove
Convention Center for making a decent show of discouraging drug use and
posting prescient warnings to patrons on the Internet: "Become aware of what
you are doing to yourself and our culture. You damage not only yourself, but
jeopardize the entire movement. If this problem isn't solved, there will
soon be no more scene for anybody."

So true. And rightly, too.

With one person dead, two hospitalized and eight others requiring emergency
care, 32 arrests and a vomitus mess left behind in the Grove, official
review of these marathons is in order.

Granted, the exuberant majority enjoyed itself and got home safely. Yet the
aftermath raises a serious question: Are we sending mixed messages to young
people when, despite a long national and local "war on drugs," publicly
owned facilities are opened to scenes that glorify and thrive on drugs?

The answer is obvious: We do indeed.

The war on drugs hasn't been pretty. It has been waged against producers,
smugglers, dealers and users. It siphons resources from cities and counties,
fills our prisons, and has pushed our schools onto the frontline. It has
overwhelmed national, state and local health-care systems. Drugs wreak havoc
on our streets, destroy neighborhoods, sunder families with untold despair
and grief. So why turn public facilities over to events that look to be as
much drugfests as musicfests?

That said, is it possible to separate the use of illegal drugs from music --
recognizing that music is an exercise of free expression, an art laden with
popular and unpopular messages that in form and commentary inevitably
divides generations?

Perhaps it's not that difficult. There is no constitutional right "to do
drugs." The courts settled that long ago. Public officials have authority to
impose reasonable regulation on public events -- to set hours, require
adequate security for public safety and to enforce anti-drug laws, impose
cleanup fees and set limits on noise that interferes with neighbors. That's
appropriate, and some restrictions were slapped on this Zen Festival.

But it would be inappropriate for officials to dictate the kinds of music
played or what is said or sung on the stage. Content -- be it music,
oratory, drama -- is to be protected.

Beyond that, it becomes a matter of the good sense and self restraint of
patrons and parents. Not enough is said about good sense in an era when an
astonishing number of parents are willing to turn loose their teen children
for 24 hours and so many adults are scrambling their brains with
"recreational" drugs.

Fads -- like raves -- come, go and evolve, as did the Woodstock festivals.
Experience already demonstrates that raves in urban areas are best held
indoors (not at race-tracks in residential areas), require extra security to
curb drug use and extra time and people to clean up after. Miami and other
South Florida officials booking such events should regulate accordingly.

Let the music play on but not the drugs.