CANCELED ROCK CONCERT COULD PROVOKE CHALLENGE TO NEW NATIONAL ANTI-DRUG
LEGISLATION

The Billings Outpost

BILLINGS, MONT. June 12, 2003: A May 30 fund-raising concert for the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws was canceled as
bands were setting up for the show. The cancellation followed a warning
from a federal drug agent that the Eagles Lodge could be fined up to
$250,000 if illegal drugs were used at the event.

The day before, the concert promoter was jailed for a probation violation.
The organizer, Adam Jones, said afterward that he would drop his activities
in the NORML chapter at Montana State University-Billings and in Students
for Sensible Drug Policy as a result of the incident.

The $250,000 penalty was included in the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation
Act of 2003, which President Bush signed into law on April 30. The
legislation was attached to the popular Child Abduction Prevention Act,
better known as the Amber Alert bill.

The bill's sponsor was Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., who has said that it was
aimed at those who knowingly profit from illegal drug use at events they
sponsor, especially at raves, where participants often consume the drug
Ecstasy. But critics say that the bill is so vaguely worded that it could
force innocent bar owners and event sponsors out of business.

Some critics also have worried that the law could be used to squelch
political activity. Gay rights groups, for example, frequently use concerts
and raves as fund-raising events. The NORML benefit here was intended to
raise money to place a medical marijuana initiative on the ballot in 2004.

The Eagles Lodge manager, who asked to be identified only as Kelly, said
that the Billings agent who approached her the day of the concert didn't
make threats but did warn of possible consequences.

"He was polite and was just explaining things," she said. She said she
referred the matter to lodge trustees, who consulted an attorney before
deciding to cancel the concert. Phone calls to Trustee Roger Diehl were not
returned Friday or over the weekend.

News of the Billings concert cancellation spread rapidly on the Internet
last week and even rated a link on Glenn Reynold's popular InstaPundit web
log site. Mr. Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor with
libertarian leanings, has argued that Biden's bill, once known as the RAVE
Act, was defective legislation.

"I blame Joe Biden - for sneaking through this abomination - and [Attorney
General John] Ashcroft's Justice Department, for applying it this way," Mr.
Reynolds wrote about the Billings case. "This legislation has always been
part of a culture war, not an anti-drug effort, and this application just
makes that crystal clear for anyone who hadn't noticed."

Agent Defends Action

Jeff Sweetin, special agent in charge of the Rocky Mountain Division of the
Drug Enforcement Agency, said that the concert's fund-raising goal had
"very little bearing" on the decision to warn the Eagles Lodge about the
event. But he said that he knew he would take heat for the cancellation.

"It certainly doesn't look very good," he acknowledged. But he said the
DEA's goal was only to make sure that the Fraternal Order of the Eagles
Lodge was aware of the risks the concert posed.

When told that the Eagles Lodge was a popular spot for alternative and punk
rock concerts, Mr. Sweetin said the warning may not have been needed. But
he said the DEA would have been negligent if it had ignored the concert and
drug use had taken place.

"I'm a parent," he said. "I have kids. My kids have a right to be protected."

And he was unapologetic about the DEA's opposition to medical marijuana laws.

"A lot of their argument is based on emotion and lies," he said, adding,
"No reputable medical person will tell you that smoked marijuana is
medically effective."

John Masterson of Montana NORML in Missoula called the DEA's actions "heavy
handed" and "coercive." Mr. Masterson said that he and other organizers of
Missoula's annual Hemp Fest are looking carefully at how to handle this
year's festival in light of the new law.

"That's not the America I want to live in," he said.

Bill Piper of the Drug Policy Alliance in Washington, D.C., said that Sen.
Biden's bill made two key changes in the so-called Crack House Act, which
was designed for prosecution of people who operate drug houses. Sen.
Biden's bill extended the crack house provisions to apply to "temporary"
uses, which means it could affect concerts and other one-time events. And
it added civil penalties, which require a lower standard of evidence and
don't guarantee jury trials.

"Once it becomes easy for them to fine people, they don't even have to
bother to fine people," Mr. Piper said.

In an article that appeared in the New York Times on the day the Billings
concert was canceled, Jacob Sullum of Reason magazine said that the Biden
bill actually could make events such as raves more dangerous. Commonsense
steps to make raves safer, such as providing plenty of water and
"chill-out" rooms, could be seen as indications that the venue owner
tolerated illegal drug use, he wrote.

While the law applies only to those who "knowingly and intentionally" allow
illegal drugs, Mr. Piper said that courts have construed that to apply to
cases where owners were unaware of drug use and may even have taken steps
to prevent it.

"You can't control every single thing," he said. "They can't even keep
drugs out of prison."

Drug-reform advocates also warned that the bill could be used to stifle
political activity, Mr. Piper said. According to Mr. Piper, Sen. Biden has
said that the law was not intended to restrict legitimate business owners
or free speech.

But he said the senator's intentions don't matter: It is the wording of the
law that causes problems. The deficiencies remained in the bill, rather
than being cleaned up in committee, because it was attached to a bill that
both houses strongly supported, he said.

Mr. Piper said the Billings case was the first he had heard about since the
new law took effect. Word about other cases may not be getting out, he
said, because many groups are now afraid to host events.

"This case," he said, "seems quite startling."

Activists Plan Strategy

According to the website of the Drug Reform Coordination Network, activists
were organizing last week to consider how to deal with the case. NORML
Foundation head Allen St. Pierre told DRCNet that the Billings case
appeared to be the first application of the RAVE Act and he called it a
"very scary precedent."

"Preemptively shutting down a First Amendment-protected event is something
that just doesn't happen in America," he reportedly said. "This is
absolutely what we feared and predicted would happen if the RAVE Act
passed. Isn't Montana known for being resistant to federal encroachment?
This should make them mighty uneasy."

Scott Crichton of the Montana American Civil Liberties Union returned a
phone call on Sunday from Washington, D.C., where he is attending a
conference. He said he had received an e-mail about the case but wasn't
familiar enough with the details to comment.

Billings bands apparently took the cancellation in stride. One of the
scheduled bands, ENDever, sent this e-mail to those on its distribution
list: "Please do not let the recent events at the F.O.E. discourage you
from coming out to our shows, or any shows for that matter. We will STILL
be playing at the F.O.E. it was just that the show in question was a bit
too liberal for Billings."

Mr. Jones acknowledged that his drug conviction may not have made him the
best representative of NORML in Billings. He said he has been on probation
for a year and a half after he was caught with one-half gram of psilocybin
mushrooms, enough for a felony charge. He said his probation officer showed
up at his house on Thursday, searched the premises and arrested him for
failing to report a change in supervisors at his job. He remained in jail
until Sunday, he said, and initially failed a urinalysis test. But the test
proved to have been inaccurate, he said.

Mr. Jones said that he had been incarcerated one other time for violating
probation: when he traveled to Helena without permission to testify in
favor of a medical marijuana bill.

"The implications of the RAVE Act are scary," he said. "Obviously, our
First Amendment rights have been thrown out the window." He said he didn't
blame the Eagles Lodge.

"In no way whatsoever do I hold anything against the Eagles Lodge," he
said. "$250,000 is a very scary number."

Kelly, the lodge manager, also defended the actions of trustees.

"They do a lot of good things for a lot of people ... but they have to do
what's best for their lodge," she said.