HOW FAR SHOULD THE WAR ON DRUGS GO?

Dear Editor,

Over the summer, when I have a free weekend and some cash, I like to spend
it at a music festival. I gather up some buddies, pack my bags, grab my
tent and head away from the real world for a short time. It's a way for us
to escape the predictably monotonous tone of the northern Virginia lifestyle.

Arriving on a Thursday or Friday, we set up camp, crack a few beers, and
anticipate the upcoming shows. We look forward to a weekend free from
convention. Most of all, we enjoy being treated like responsible adults.We
arrive and our cars aren't searched. We walk around aimlessly at

midnight and there are no officers telling us to get to where we are going.
We sit around the camp site with bottles of beer in our hands, not red
plastic cups. Nobody to tell us, "You kids can have a good time, just keep
it out of my sight." No undercover "dreddie-feddies" asking where the dope
is, hoping to bust every generous person they find. There's not an
overbearing police presence to instill a sense of "order." If I am thirsty,
I buy water from a common guy trying to make a buck, not from some
corporation trying to make ten. Best of all, no routine pat-downs every
time I want to watch a performance.

Surprisingly enough, the organizers and the festivalians are able to come
together to enjoy a short time of relative harmony. If a festival is
well-organized, violence, drug overdoses, and other problems are kept to a
minimum. Without marching all over our constitutional rights, it's quite
impossible for the event organizers to guarantee that nobody who attends
will use illegal drugs. To hold a business owner accountable for the
actions of every person at an event would be ludicrous.

The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act (formerly known as the RAVE Act),
introduced by Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and signed into law by President Bush
last April, does just that. The broad language of the bill places
responsibility on event organizers if the nature of the business makes it
impossible to guarantee that no drug use will occur at the site.
Hypothetically, if small amounts of drugs are found on a person at an
event, the organizers can be fined up to $250,000 and thrown in jail for up
to twenty

years. If I have a party at my house and somebody sneaks off to smoke a
joint in the backyard, it is now my fault. In the name of fighting the "war on

drugs," the government has gone too far. The fact that we are now holding
innocent business owners accountable for the actions of their customers
reflects the inability of the DEA to take care of its own problem. In
response, the event organizers will surely raise the intensity of on-site
security to infringing levels.

For anybody who enjoys getting away from home and occasionally going to a
festival, concert, rave, or any other planned event, don't be surprised to
find yourself constrained from every angle by a dramatic increase in
security procedures. Expect to see blue uniforms everywhere you look.
Expect to feel constantly restricted. Expect to hear of undercover officers
strolling around the site watching over you. Expect to be patted down more
times than necessary. Expect a whole new atmosphere.

To read more about the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, visit the
American Civil Liberties Union at www.aclu.org. If you feel that this piece
of legislation is unfair to business owners and will result in an erosion
of some of our civil liberties, voice your opposition at
www.protectlivemusic.org.

Greg Liggett

Sociology

Junior