RAVERS AGAINST THE MACHINE

Partiers And ACLU Take On 'Ecstasy' Legislation

Two young women on an urgent mission have been lugging boxes into the
offices of U.S. senators this week. The boxes contain petitions an inch
thick, one for each senator. Nearly 10,000 signatures were collected over
the Internet in five days.

The petitions declare: "This bill is a serious threat to civil liberties,
freedom of speech and the right to dance."

Look out, Congress: The ravers are coming.

"We're offended by the fact they're blackballing an entire musical genre,"
said Amanda Huie, checking senators' names off her list Tuesday afternoon.

The genre in question is electronic dance music, which fans enjoy at
all-night parties called raves. Legislation in Congress could hold
promoters responsible if people attending the events use illegal drugs such
as Ecstasy, the party drug frequently associated with raves.

The Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act of 2002 -- or the RAVE
Act -- has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee and is on the consent
calendar, meaning it could receive final approval without a roll call vote
at any time. When he introduced the bill in June, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.)
said "most raves are havens for illicit drugs," and congressional findings
submitted with the bill label as drug paraphernalia such rave mainstays as
bottled water, "chill rooms" and glow sticks.

The bill would expand the existing federal crack house law, which makes it
a felony to provide a space for the purpose of illegal drug use, to cover
promoters of raves and other events.

Another bill pending in the House -- the Clean, Learn, Educate, Abolish,
Neutralize and Undermine Production (CLEAN-UP) of Methamphetamines Act,
introduced by Rep. Doug Ose (R-Calif.) -- goes further. It would hold
concert promoters in violation if they "reasonably ought to know" that
someone will use an illegal drug during an event.

The House bill has 67 sponsors but has languished in committee since
February, while in one month the RAVE Act -- sponsored by Sens. Chuck
Grassley (R-Iowa), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Richard
Durbin (D-Ill.) -- has sailed smoothly to the brink of approval. Caught by
surprise, some ravers briefly considered a more theatrical protest on the
Hill, perhaps showing off totems of their culture -- rainbow hair, baggy
pants, extended trance jams and those controversial glow sticks. But no.
This is Washington, and ravers know the folkways. Huie, dressed quietly in
slacks and shirt, said people from 49 states signed the petition. (Ravers
must be scarce in North Dakota.)

"This is a petition about S. 2633," Huie told receptionists in office after
office, referring to the bill number with insider aplomb. She is the
marketing director of Buzzlife Productions, a Washington promoter.

Biden's staff has been surprised, too -- by the sudden outcry. "We thought
this would be an innocuous bill that everybody would rally in support of,"
said Alan Hoffman, Biden's chief of staff.

After all, the bill merely adjusts the wording of the so-called crack house
law. For example, crack houses are fixed indoor locations; the RAVE Act
would also cover temporary outdoor venues.

So what?

"It violates the First Amendment," said Marv Johnson, an attorney for the
American Civil Liberties Union.

Johnson argues that while there is no constitutional right to smoke crack,
there is, in fact, a right to dance. Music and dance are protected forms of
free expression, he said. By extending the crack house law to dance
parties, the RAVE Act would discourage promoters from sponsoring this kind
of art, he said.

The ACLU was caught as flat-footed as the ravers, and is seeking a senator
to put a "hold" on the bill, to get it off the consent calendar and force a
roll call vote.

Biden rejects the ACLU's characterization. The issue is the drugs, he said,
not the music. The bill was prompted by unsuccessful prosecutions of rave
promoters under the crack house law. Introducing the bill, Biden said
Ecstasy is responsible for thousands of overdoses and some deaths, and its
abuse by teenagers has jumped 71 percent since 1999. He said police
investigations in several cities demonstrate that raves are a favorite
place to buy, sell and take Ecstasy tablets.

Some promoters distribute fliers bearing pictures of pills or argot for
Ecstasy such as "E" or "X" or "Rollin' " -- evidence that doing drugs is
part of the purpose of those raves, Biden said. Under his bill, only
promoters who stage events for that purpose would be prosecuted.

But that may not be much of a safeguard for legitimate promoters, according
to the ACLU and rave advocates. The congressional findings attached to the
bill bluntly state that "the trafficking and use of 'club drugs' . . . is
deeply embedded in the rave culture." The findings become part of the
legislative history of the bill and could support a prosecutor's claim that
any rave should be suspect, Johnson said. The RAVE Act provides for civil
penalties of $250,000 or twice the gross proceeds of the rave, requiring a
lower burden of proof than the crack house law's criminal penalties,
Johnson said.

"The way the system really works is, you arrest and accuse and then you
fight it out in court," said Lonnie Fisher, president of Ultraworld
Productions in Baltimore. "They could break the back of a small promoter
financially."

But Grassley, in a statement yesterday, said the RAVE Act is an appropriate
extension of the crack house law: "There are people who host raves so they
can sell Ecstasy, just as there are people who rent houses so they can sell
drugs. We've seen raves advertised as safe, alcohol-free and drug-free
places for kids to socialize and dance. If this is what the promoter
actually intends, then they don't have anything to worry about."

Ravers seem most offended by what they say is another smear to the
reputation of their strobe-lit scene. They contend that police, politicians
and media have exaggerated the amount of criminal activity in rave culture
since it began more than a decade ago. There are plenty of drugs at rock
shows, too, ravers claim, yet no senator has proposed a ROCK Act.

"This bill seems to imply that people go to raves to do drugs, and the
music is there to accentuate the drug experience," said Luciana Lopez of
Washington, who is protesting the legislation. A copy editor for a science
journal, she said she neither drinks nor uses drugs -- but does wear green
and blue wigs to raves.

"This culture is really important to me," she said. She described the
euphoria of dancing for hours with people who may start as strangers but
who by early the next morning are exchanging hugs and phone numbers. "It
makes you feel part of a community," she said.

The water and the "chill rooms" are for cooling off after dancing, she
said, not because so many ravers are overheated on Ecstasy. And the glow
sticks look cool.

Lopez and many Washington ravers are found Friday nights at Buzz, the
weekly rave party sponsored by Buzzlife at Nation, the club on Half Street
SE. The cover charge is $15 before 11 p.m., $20 after, and the dancing
stops at 6 a.m., according to Huie.

Three years ago, a local television station went undercover at Buzz and
broadcast alleged drug use. In the welter of bad publicity, Buzz
temporarily shut down. The ravers claimed the discovery of drugs was blown
out of proportion. Now ravers must empty their pockets at the door,
according to Huie.

Congress has taken up the issue of rave culture at least once before. A
year ago, as part of a celebration of Detroit's tricentennial, the House
and Senate passed a resolution congratulating the city for, among other
things, helping to pioneer techno, the electronic dance music popular at raves.