BILL PASSES TARGETING RAVE SCENE

'Chilling Effect' On Circuit Parties Feared

An anti-drug bill that gay and straight event promoters say could subject
them to criminal prosecution for drug offenses committed by their customers
passed in the House and Senate on April 10 by overwhelming margins.

The legislation, formerly known as the RAVE Act and later renamed the
Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, sailed through Congress with little
public notice and almost no debate after a House-Senate conference
committee on April 8 attached the bill to the popular Child Abduction
Prevention Act.

White House officials say President Bush plans to sign the legislation.

Gay event promoters, including organizers of gay circuit parties, have
warned that the anti-drug bill could subject them to criminal penalties and
stiff civil fines, a development, they said, that could prompt them to
consider discontinuing the popular circuit parties. Circuit events have
long served as fund-raisers for gay civil rights causes and AIDS organizations.

The bill broadens the scope of an existing federal law, known as the Crack
House Act, which gives the federal government authority to criminally
prosecute owners of properties in which drug use and distribution occurs.
The new legislation authorizes federal prosecution of organizers or
promoters of one-time events, such as circuit parties or rave events, in
which alleged drug use or distribution occurs. The bill also allows federal
authorities to file civil charges against event promoters who allegedly
allow drug activity at their events.

Critics have said the civil offense clause in the bill could be used to
bankrupt promoters because they could be ordered to pay a $250,000 fine for
each charge filed against them. Civil charges require a lower threshold of
evidence than criminal charges, making it easier for prosecutors to obtain
a conviction.

"It is important to remember that this legislation punishes business owners
and event producers and sponsors for the actions of event attendees,
despite their efforts to discourage or prevent illegal drug use," said gay
event promoter Mark Lee, who produces the D.C. gay dance parties Atlas and
Lizard Lounge.

"Essentially there is no way for special event producers or circuit events
to adequately protect themselves or their events from possible prosecution
under the terms of the law," he said.

Lee said he was especially concerned that the law allows authorities to use
"harm-reduction" efforts by circuit party promoters as evidence of the
promoter's "knowledge" that drug use is occurring at these events.

Promoters of the D.C. Cherry Party, for example, have in the past provided
medical services and drug information literature for their patrons,
services that Lee fears could be used against event promoters by an
overzealous prosecutor.

Targeting unscrupulous promoters

Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.), the author and chief sponsor of the Illicit
Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, has denied the legislation would harm
legitimate nightclubs or events. Biden said the measure is aimed at
unscrupulous event promoters or club owners who "knowingly" allow,
encourage or promote drug use and sales on their premises. Biden noted that
the club drug ecstasy is widely used in nightclubs that offer rave music as
well as at one-time events that bill themselves as rave parties.

While disputing assertions by the American Civil Liberties Union and rave
party enthusiasts that his bill would violate First Amendment protection of
free expression by singling out a specific type of music, Biden
nevertheless agreed to remove the term "RAVE" from the bill's title, which
was an acronym for Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy.

Biden also deleted from the bill a preamble or "findings" section that
linked the distribution of glow sticks, the sale of bottled water, and the
offering of air conditioned "chill rooms" by event promoters as potential
evidence that the events were encouraging the use or sale of ecstasy on
their premises.

The child abduction measure, known as the "Amber alert" bill, establishes a
national, federally funded alert system to help local law enforcement
agencies and the FBI rescue abducted children. The bill received
overwhelming bipartisan support, making it impossible for opponents of the
Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act to persuade their colleagues to vote
against the combined legislation.

The Senate passed the combined measure by a vote of 98 to 0. The House
passed the legislation by a vote of 400 to 25, with eight members not
voting and two members voting "present."

'Overly punitive'

Gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was among the 25 House members to vote
against the Amber alert bill. Frank, who voted for an earlier version of
the Amber alert measure, said the Republican-controlled conference
committee's decision to add the RAVE Act to the bill prompted him to vote
against it on April 10.

Frank called the former RAVE Act and its new incarnation another example of
the nation's "overly punitive approach to drug use," which he called
"counterproductive."

Frank said he believes opponents would have been able to line up many more
votes against the measure had Republican leaders allowed it to reach the
House floor as a freestanding bill.

The other two openly gay members of the House -- Reps. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.)
and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) -- voted for the combined bill.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who also voted against the Amber alert bill,
opposed a decision by the conference committee to attach several unrelated
bills to the Amber alert measure, in addition to the RAVE Act, turning the
measure into a "Christmas tree" bill for ultra conservative causes,
according to a Nadler spokesperson.

William McColl, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance,
a group that lobbied against the RAVE Act, said the version of the act that
Congress passed last week is broadly worded. He said the legislation will
likely embolden federal prosecutors to cite the use of glow sticks and
chill rooms as grounds for launching a drug investigation into rave or
circuit parties.