PARTY LAW MISREPRESENTS, ENDANGERS RAVE CULTURE

This new RAVE Act going through Congress is quite possibly the most
despicable remedy for the apparent correlation between club drugs and raves.

Presumptuous? Yes. The RAVE Act seems to make sense from an uninformed
point of view. It appears to say, "If you are a party promoter and you
allow drug use at your event, your event will be shut down."

First of all, after having been an active member of the Bay Area rave
culture for over six years and a friend to some of the most well known and
well respected promoters in the scene, I can honestly say that no promoter
has actually supported or permitted drug use at his or her events.

Why? Because promoters aren't stupid. They are business professionals who
know that hyper-reactive cops are anxiously awaiting any chance to pull the
plug on their parties. Partygoers obviously want their money back whenever
a rave gets shut down. Any drug use at raves is always without the consent
of the organizers of the event.

Alright, so promoters never actually allow drug use at their parties. So
what will the RAVE Act actually do? This question brings up a devastating
subtlety that dodges the caring rhetoric. In the recent parties CyberFest
and Metropolis by CoolWorld and Clockworks promotions respectively, the
enormous 20,000-person venues for these events each gave the promoters
similar conditions, in particular "if you allow drug use at your event,
your event will be shut down." Sound familiar?

But when this was enforced under police oversight, it was converted into
absurdity. No one was allowed to bring in anything that glows or any
colorful jewelry under the auspice that such items served only to
supplement drug use. They wouldn't even allow attendees to bring in bottled
water because water was considered "drug paraphernalia" for ecstasy users.

And in some even more extreme cases, people that intricately waved their
hands while dancing with friends were ejected for the crap reason that
dancing in such a way is meant only for the entertainment of those on
drugs, and therefore these motions condoned drug activity. One hundred
percent bullshit. Colorful jewelry and glow products are a part of rave
culture in much the same way that any music scene has characteristic
clothing and apparel. To say that any raver wearing beads is going to do
drugs is just as presumptuous and idiotic as saying hip-hop fans that wear
big pants at a concert are in a gang. And water becoming "drug
paraphernalia" is just absolutely absurd.

The insane security procedures at CyberFest and Metropolis give us a
heads-up as to what to expect if the RAVE Act passes. If the act does pass,
some theorize that cops will interpret the legislation so as to shut down
events if anyone is caught using or under the influence of drugs. No matter
how hard an organizer for any large event may try, it is basically
impossible to ensure that absolutely everyone stays clean -- shutting down
events if one person is under the influence is pretty senseless.

But even so, such extreme interpretations of the RAVE Act have been
presented. Finally, the rave scene is a misunderstood culture that is based
on a mutual enjoyment of electronic music, not drugs. I admit that some
party-goers do drugs at raves. But if you ask any ravers why they love the
scene so much they'd probably say it's because of the music alone.

Kenny Kamrin is a UC Berkeley student and the president of Sonic Insomnia.