America Outlaws Glow Sticks (Again)

A US Appeals court this week decided that a ban against glow sticks, pacifiers (dummies) and Vicks inhalers at a New Orleans nightclub should be enforced, effectively classifying the clubbing accessories as drug paraphernalia.

The new ruling means any club or entertainment event tolerating any use of such accessories could become vulnerable to the RAVE Act, and was immediately attacked by civil liberties activist Joe Cook from the ACLU.

"We still believe that they should not ban inherently legal objects that are used in expressive communication because a few people use the same legal items to enhance the effects of an illegal substance," Mr Cook told the Shreveport Times.

ACLU lawyer Graham Boyd, who was closely involved in the original Glow stick trial, spoke to Skrufff last year and suggested a generational divide is behind America's rapidly escalating war on clubs.

"With the anti-rave measures, the drug testing in schools and all the other measures aimed at young people, it's a way of trying to achieve social control of young people," said Graham.

"While on the surface the anti-rave legislation purports to be about drug policy, I think it's really about controlling young people and trying to make them conform to the mass culture that their parents are more comfortable with," he suggested.

To view the court decision click here
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