In America June 2002 a new bill was introduced called the R.A.V.E Act - Reducing Americans Vulnerability to Ecstasy. This bill was fast tracked and passed the Senate Judiciary Committee just over a week after it was introduced. The bill passed without a public hearing or a recorded voted.
This act made club owners and promoters liable for the drug offences of their customers. So if you own a bar or a club and somebody consumes drugs on your premises, then you could face up to $250,000 fine or face up to 20 years imprisonment.
Word soon spread within the music community invoking a huge outcry. Many organisations began to protest. Buzzlife productions submitted a petition to congress which contained over 20000 signatures opposing the bill, strengthened by the tens of thousands of voters who directly contacted their members of congress urging them to oppose the bill.
Events were organised nation wide in all major cities across the U.S in aid of raising awareness and protesting against the bill. With all this uproar national newspapers latched onto the story and then the two original co sponsors of the bill, withdrew. As a result the senate leadership never brought it up for a vote.
In 2003 a new bill was introduced The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act. It was basically the R.A.V.E Act retitled and rehashed (excuse the pun!) minus the pathetic section which named glow sticks and bottled water as drug paraphernalia. The words "clutching" and "straws" come to mind regarding this statement.
This bill did not just affect club owners and promoters; it had a direct affect on the dance music industry as a whole. Again thousands of people started protesting but this time it was all in vain. The bill was attached to The Amber Alert Bill, this was a completely unrelated bill and The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act was inserted last minute. The Amber Alert Bill was for provisions against child abductions. This bill had previously passed Senate and The House, so the bill was sent direct to all members of congress for a final yes/no vote. Even if people did not agree with the Rave act they had to vote yes because they wanted to enact the provisions preventing child abductions.
Now this law is passed we have two more bills trying to be pushed through The Ecstasy Awareness Act and the Clean Up Act.
The Ecstasy Awareness Act this act had such a wide span that anybody from bar staff to Dj's could be fined or jailed basically anyone who profited from the event. Even if promoters had a zero tolerance stance, searched each person who entered their venue and done everything they could to stop drugs on their premises this wouldn't matter. They would still face prosecution.
The Clean Up Act states Whoever, for a commercial purpose, knowingly promotes any rave, dance, music, or other entertainment event, that takes place under circumstances where the promoter knows or reasonably ought to know that a controlled substance will be used or distributed in violation of Federal law or the [state or local law], shall be fined or imprisoned for not more than 9 years, or both.
Drugs are rife in every country across the world. In every walk of life, even in America's prisons and penitentiary's, it would be ignorance to not admit that fact. Prosecuting workers in the music industry for somebody else using drugs draws exactly the same comparisons of prosecuting Governors within prisons for drug use or closing down the stock market for a broker dabbling with cocaine? This is why it seems like an open attack on the music industry.
Why do they think stopping people listening to their preferred music will automatically prevent drug taking. Over paid bureaucrats have sat there one day and said we can't control the drugs in our country and we have spent billions on the war on the drugs, so what we will do is prosecute innocent people who hold large events? Yeah that's it, most people who take drugs are young, now where do young people go, ah I know clubs and raves, so what we will do is stop these events and we will stop the drug taking - Bingo!!
We all know that's not going to change anything, all it will serve is to close down large music events which thousands of people enjoy, and the war with drugs will continue
In Wisconsin, local officials raided a popular nightclub and fined every customer - simply for being in proximity to a drug arrest on the premises, insane!!
U.S. federal, state and local governments have spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to make America "drug-free." Yet heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other illicit drugs are cheaper, purer and easier to get than ever before. Nearly half a million people are behind bars on drug charges - more than all of Western Europe (which has a bigger population) incarcerates for all offences. The war on drugs has become a war on their constitutional rights.
Whereas marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, alcohol poisoning kills more people every year than all illegal drugs combined. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D. has described tobacco as moreaddictive than heroin.
Numerous co-sponsors of the Clean Up Act now say they support removing the anti-live-music provision from the Clean-Up Act because of opposition by many groups, the Ecstasy Awareness Act has stalled last year and is due to be voted on some time this year.
Over here in the UK our government are least trying to help the situation. They know they won't be able to stop drug culture. In 2002 the home office launched an 80 page guidance book safer clubbing, on the basis that Nightclubs are an inherent part of social life for young people in Britain today. Clubbing provides an opportunity for an estimated 3.8 million people every week to meet up, socialise and dance.
One of the objectives of the national 10 year drug strategy 'Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain' is to tackle drugs in clubs. In 1996 the London Drug Policy Forum produced guidance for clubs called 'Dance Till Dawn Safely' which proved to be an extremely useful document for licensing officers, club managers and promoters. Fashions and patterns in clubbing change constantly, and the time had come for an updated edition of the guidance to be produced.
The Home Office worked in partnership with the London Drug Policy Forum to produce this update. The consultation process was thorough and lengthy. The purpose of this revised guidance is to improve safety for all club goers and in particular to reduce the range of harms associated with drug use and clubbing.
The booklet covers overcrowding issue including air conditioning and ventilation, clubbers overheating, drug information & outreach, dealing with drug induced problems and training of staff and many other issues.
Now at least this is a step in the right direction, rather than making innocent people criminals we are educating and dealing with the problem.
Let's hope the American officials can't sneak these bills through to become law or the clubbing scene for our friends on the other side of the Atlantic may cease to be.
Since writing this article we have had new developments. Yesterday (21/01/04) we heard the great news about the fight to protect live music. As you may know, the Drug Policy Alliance spent 2004 battling against the Clean up act in Congress. While there was much in this bill they liked they we opposed a key provision that would have punished nightclub owners and music promoters for their customers' drug use. Earlier this month, a new version of the CLEAN-UP Act was introduced (HR 13). We're thrilled to say this new bill does NOT contain the controversial provision.
