ACLU on The RAVE Act & The Return of The Senate

The return of American politicians from summer recess next week (September), means the anti-dancing and club culture bill the RAVE act will be returning to the political agenda, with US club culture facing ruin if the pill passes as it is. Under the terms of the bill, house parties, clubs and even barbecues face being outlawed in America, with its purpose being to destroy dance culture, according to America's leading civil rights Lawyer Graham Boyd.

"The law is so broad that it criminalizes the act of maintaining a property and allowing people to access your property when you know drug use is occurring," he explained.

"Every college dean knows that there is some drug use going on, on their campus such as somebody smoking a joint. This law would turn them into federal criminals and put them in prison.

"Though I'm not saying that would happen, prosecutors are not going to target college deans but what it does is give them a tool to target people who they don't like."





Skrufff (Jonty Adderley): What's caused this new anti rave momentum; random factors or something else-

A.C.L.U: (Graham Boyd): "I don't know the answer to that, though I hope it's just something that's innocent, based on a lack of information. Senator Biden and Senator Grassley, two of the prime sponsors, are both Liberal Democrats who wouldn't necessarily be expected to be doing something like this. Particularly something that has such profound implications for free speech and freedom of expression. My hope is that they haven't yet realised that this is something much more than simply going after drug users."

Skrufff: It seems like an incredibly sinister bill, how are ordinary people reacting to this Bill-

A.C.L.U: "So far I've seen a very quick coalition coming into force between people who fall into two categories. Firstly, there are the people trying to bring some common sense to our drug laws, so the drug policy world is mobilising around it. The other group is the music industry though so far it's limited to the promoters rather than any big acts. I think the key to stopping this bill will be getting some of the more powerful elements within the music industry involved to say that this is an act that can interfere with them holding massively popular events for the likes of Britney Spears and the Back Street Boys, or Moby, for example. They need to be saying, 'We're legitimate business people who are part of the American economy and it's nonsensical for you to try and shut us down when we're doing nothing illegal."

Skrufff: Aspects of the bill talk about the provision of water and imply that promoters are condoning drug use by offering drinking water, is this an attempt to outlaw harm reduction information-

A.C.L.U: "Yes, that's certainly a part of the bill though it's much broader. It would make it evidence of a crime for anyone to take a measure that would signal awareness of drug use going on. Providing water then could be seen as proof that an awareness exists that ecstasy's being taken, providing chill rooms and certainly harm reduction leaflets would be the same. These are all things in the views of our Government, that are associated with ecstasy use so could be seen as evidence that you know ecstasy use is going on, therefore being evidence of a crime."

Skrufff: Acclaimed political thinker Noam Chomsky recently described the war on drugs as a "technique of social control, intended to frighten and remove dissatisfied and economically useless people", would you agree-

A.C.L.U: "I think that analysis is essentially right though I also focus in many aspects on the racial aspects of it. The war on drugs is a way that is palatable to most of our citizens that achieves a lot of the same measures of social control that have been done in the past by overtly discriminatory laws that are no longer legal or acceptable. You only have to look at the numbers of ethnic Americans that we have in prison who are also denied the cha Tags

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