daniel
04-24-2003, 05:24 AM
A Rant Against The RAVE Act
In the midst of the current obsessions with the war’s aftermath and our troubled economy, it is easy to forget that other issues, on a completely different register, still deserve our thought and attention. Congress has just passed a bill that further curtails the rights and freedom of US citizens in ways that are not only unproductive, but nonsensical. When the RAVE (Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy) Act was first circulated in Congress, public pressure in the form of letters and faxes helped to derail it. Without holding hearings on the content of this bill, Senator Biden (Democrat of Delaware) slightly reworded and renamed it, then attached it to the popular "National Amber Alert Network Act of 2003 (S151)," setting up an alert system for child abuse across the US.
Among other surprising prospects, the reworded RAVE Act makes any club owner or party promoter criminally liable for any illicit drug use that occurs during their event. If a promoter were to have paramedics on hand, or include what is known in Rave culture as a "chill space," where bottled water is the beverage of choice and people often relax and talk rather than bombard themselves into an alcoholic stupor, these could be considered tacit support of llegal drug use. The effects of the RAVE Act, if enforced, will send a chill through the nightlife industry, and paradoxically make many events far less safe for many young people, as they will be held outside official venues, or without medical supervision. The federal government frowns on the notion of "Harm Reduction," promoted by groups such as DanceSafe, which seek to distribute accurate and up-to-date information about illicit substances rather than prohibitionist propaganda. Yet the current abolitionist approach is a dead end.
In the decades since the unleashing of the US Government’s "War on Drugs," few would call it an unqualified success. Half a million people currently clog the nation’s prisons, at taxpayer’s expense, for drug-related offenses. More than 700,000 people are arrested each year for marijuana alone – a substance with less demonstrable toxicity than alcohol, Prozac, or nicotine. Despite government pressure, illicit drugs are still widely available. It is interesting to note that in recent years, European countries – including our current allies Spain and Portugal – have quickly and quietly moved to decriminalize possession of substances ranging from marijuana to Ecstasy, LSD, and even heroin, without volatile social reaction. Prison populations have been reduced and Law Enforcement Agencies have more time to concentrate on violent offenders. It is an open question whether the US can afford a simultaneous "War on Drugs" and "War on Terrorism."
In "The Natural Mind" (1973), Dr. Andrew Weil made the irrefutable case that altering consciousness is a natural and inescapable aspect of human behavior. From the 1960s through today, figures of intellectual stature, including the novelist Aldous Huxley, the philosopher Alan Watts, and the religious historian Huston Smith, have argued that experience of substance-induced changes in consciousness can have personal and even societal value. Without rehearsing those arguments, it could be noted that the case for ending the "War on Drugs" through decriminalization or legalization has been made in recent years by such countercultural stalwarts as William F. Buckley Jr. and George Soros.
Europe seems to be evolving beyond our draconian approach to illicit substances. But of course, America, home of the "Freedom Fry," is different. It could never happen here.
In the midst of the current obsessions with the war’s aftermath and our troubled economy, it is easy to forget that other issues, on a completely different register, still deserve our thought and attention. Congress has just passed a bill that further curtails the rights and freedom of US citizens in ways that are not only unproductive, but nonsensical. When the RAVE (Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy) Act was first circulated in Congress, public pressure in the form of letters and faxes helped to derail it. Without holding hearings on the content of this bill, Senator Biden (Democrat of Delaware) slightly reworded and renamed it, then attached it to the popular "National Amber Alert Network Act of 2003 (S151)," setting up an alert system for child abuse across the US.
Among other surprising prospects, the reworded RAVE Act makes any club owner or party promoter criminally liable for any illicit drug use that occurs during their event. If a promoter were to have paramedics on hand, or include what is known in Rave culture as a "chill space," where bottled water is the beverage of choice and people often relax and talk rather than bombard themselves into an alcoholic stupor, these could be considered tacit support of llegal drug use. The effects of the RAVE Act, if enforced, will send a chill through the nightlife industry, and paradoxically make many events far less safe for many young people, as they will be held outside official venues, or without medical supervision. The federal government frowns on the notion of "Harm Reduction," promoted by groups such as DanceSafe, which seek to distribute accurate and up-to-date information about illicit substances rather than prohibitionist propaganda. Yet the current abolitionist approach is a dead end.
In the decades since the unleashing of the US Government’s "War on Drugs," few would call it an unqualified success. Half a million people currently clog the nation’s prisons, at taxpayer’s expense, for drug-related offenses. More than 700,000 people are arrested each year for marijuana alone – a substance with less demonstrable toxicity than alcohol, Prozac, or nicotine. Despite government pressure, illicit drugs are still widely available. It is interesting to note that in recent years, European countries – including our current allies Spain and Portugal – have quickly and quietly moved to decriminalize possession of substances ranging from marijuana to Ecstasy, LSD, and even heroin, without volatile social reaction. Prison populations have been reduced and Law Enforcement Agencies have more time to concentrate on violent offenders. It is an open question whether the US can afford a simultaneous "War on Drugs" and "War on Terrorism."
In "The Natural Mind" (1973), Dr. Andrew Weil made the irrefutable case that altering consciousness is a natural and inescapable aspect of human behavior. From the 1960s through today, figures of intellectual stature, including the novelist Aldous Huxley, the philosopher Alan Watts, and the religious historian Huston Smith, have argued that experience of substance-induced changes in consciousness can have personal and even societal value. Without rehearsing those arguments, it could be noted that the case for ending the "War on Drugs" through decriminalization or legalization has been made in recent years by such countercultural stalwarts as William F. Buckley Jr. and George Soros.
Europe seems to be evolving beyond our draconian approach to illicit substances. But of course, America, home of the "Freedom Fry," is different. It could never happen here.