THE CORRECT WAY TO DEAL WITH ECSTASY

State Sen. Jake Corman, R-Bellefonte, is taking the right course by pushing
for tougher penalties for selling Ecstasy, the mood-altering drug
responsible the death of former Penn State student Stephanie Yau last November.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Senate, also wanting to look tough on ecstasy, is
going overboard. Tough sanctions against dealers is one thing, but the
Senate has a bill that would be akin to shutting down bars in an effort to
end drunk driving.

The federal bill would reach beyond the sellers of the drug to go after the
sponsors of raves, the high-intensity dance parties where Ecstasy is
frequently used. The cleverly named "Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to
Ecstasy Act of 2002" -- the RAVE Act, for short -- would "prohibit an
individual from knowingly opening, maintaining, managing, controlling,
renting, leasing, making available for use, or profiting from" a place or
event where illegal drugs are sold or used. This legislation would subject
violators to civil fines of up to $250,000 plus injunctive damages.

If the bill essentially stopped there, it would hardly raise an eyebrow.
For years, local and federal drug enforcement officials have used a similar
law to crack down on property owners who either failed to take action to
prevent their properties from being turned into "crack houses" or actually
took payments from known drug dealers. It has proven to be an essential
tool for rooting out some of the conditions in which drug dealing and
related crimes fester.

But the bill goes on to so tightly weave the use of illegal drugs to raves
that to go after one would be to go after the other. The bill makes such
statements as "each year, tens of thousands of young people are initiated
into the drug culture at 'rave' parties" and that the use of Ecstasy and
other "club drugs" is "deeply embedded in the rave culture." It even says
that "many rave promoters go to great lengths to try to portray their
events as alcohol-free parties that are safe places for young adults to go
to dance with friends, and some even go so far as to hire off-duty,
uniformed police officers to patrol outside of the venue to give parents
the impression that the event is safe."

If an enterprising congressman had introduced a bill 30 years ago that said
that because there is heavy marijuana use at outdoor concerts, the
organizers of such concerts and the owners of the land where they are held
should be subject to crushing fines, the common sense that that would be no
better than using an anti-aircraft missile to shoot geese would have
prevailed. The RAVE bill, however, already has gone through the Senate
Judiciary Committee, chaired by the usually level- headed Sen. Joseph
Biden, D-Del. Critical thinking appears to have been suspended.

Yes, there are problems with raves and with unscrupulous promoters who
facilitate illegal and life-threatening activities or look the other way
when they take place. Those people should be punished but not with this
bill. Raves do not need to be virtually banished to get at the problem of
Ecstasy.

What certainly needs to happen -- in addition to a heavy investment in
education and other prevention efforts -- is that the weight of the law
must fall heavily on those who would sell this poison to our youth.
Corman's bill sets jail terms that range from up to five years in prison
and a $15,000 fine for persons selling more than 50 tablets of the drug to
a maximum of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for more than 1,000
tablets or 300 grams.

Unlike the poorly conceived bill going through the Senate, efforts in the
General Assembly to toughen Ecstasy penalties have moved more slowly. They
deserve better. Corman's bill goes after the right target: those who peddle
illegal drugs.