Pubdate: Tue, 30 Jul 2002
Source: Daily Californian, The (CA Edu)
Copyright: 2002 The Daily Californian
Contact:  http://www.dailycal.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/597
Author: Kenny Kamrin

PARTY LAW MISREPRESENTS, ENDANGERS RAVE CULTURE

This new RAVE Act going through Congress is quite possibly the most 
despicable remedy for the apparent correlation between club drugs and raves.

Presumptuous? Yes. The RAVE Act seems to make sense from an uninformed 
point of view. It appears to say, "If you are a party promoter and you 
allow drug use at your event, your event will be shut down."

First of all, after having been an active member of the Bay Area rave 
culture for over six years and a friend to some of the most well known and 
well respected promoters in the scene, I can honestly say that no promoter 
has actually supported or permitted drug use at his or her events.

Why? Because promoters aren't stupid. They are business professionals who 
know that hyper-reactive cops are anxiously awaiting any chance to pull the 
plug on their parties. Partygoers obviously want their money back whenever 
a rave gets shut down. Any drug use at raves is always without the consent 
of the organizers of the event.

Alright, so promoters never actually allow drug use at their parties. So 
what will the RAVE Act actually do? This question brings up a devastating 
subtlety that dodges the caring rhetoric. In the recent parties CyberFest 
and Metropolis by CoolWorld and Clockworks promotions respectively, the 
enormous 20,000-person venues for these events each gave the promoters 
similar conditions, in particular "if you allow drug use at your event, 
your event will be shut down." Sound familiar?

But when this was enforced under police oversight, it was converted into 
absurdity. No one was allowed to bring in anything that glows or any 
colorful jewelry under the auspice that such items served only to 
supplement drug use. They wouldn't even allow attendees to bring in bottled 
water because water was considered "drug paraphernalia" for ecstasy users.

And in some even more extreme cases, people that intricately waved their 
hands while dancing with friends were ejected for the crap reason that 
dancing in such a way is meant only for the entertainment of those on 
drugs, and therefore these motions condoned drug activity. One hundred 
percent bullshit. Colorful jewelry and glow products are a part of rave 
culture in much the same way that any music scene has characteristic 
clothing and apparel. To say that any raver wearing beads is going to do 
drugs is just as presumptuous and idiotic as saying hip-hop fans that wear 
big pants at a concert are in a gang. And water becoming "drug 
paraphernalia" is just absolutely absurd.

The insane security procedures at CyberFest and Metropolis give us a 
heads-up as to what to expect if the RAVE Act passes. If the act does pass, 
some theorize that cops will interpret the legislation so as to shut down 
events if anyone is caught using or under the influence of drugs. No matter 
how hard an organizer for any large event may try, it is basically 
impossible to ensure that absolutely everyone stays clean -- shutting down 
events if one person is under the influence is pretty senseless.

But even so, such extreme interpretations of the RAVE Act have been 
presented. Finally, the rave scene is a misunderstood culture that is based 
on a mutual enjoyment of electronic music, not drugs. I admit that some 
party-goers do drugs at raves. But if you ask any ravers why they love the 
scene so much they'd probably say it's because of the music alone.

Kenny Kamrin is a UC Berkeley student and the president of Sonic Insomnia.
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