Pubdate: Sat, 21 Jun 2003
Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
Copyright: 2003 Boulder Weekly
Contact:  http://www.boulderweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/57

DON'T SAY WE DIDN'T WARN YOU

In a column in the April 17 issue ("The war on music"), Boulder Weekly 
warned readers of the impending passage of the Illicit Drug 
Anti-Proliferation Act -- a tweaked version of the RAVE Act that was 
piggybacked onto the AMBER Alert legislation by spineless legislators in 
Congress.

Musicians, promoters, venue owners and civil-rights advocates spoke out 
against the revised RAVE Act because it threatened venue owners with fines 
and jail time if drugs were found on third parties on their 
premises-regardless of the owner's knowledge of the drugs. Many feared that 
the act put too much subjective power in the hands of the federal 
government, and experience has taught that this unchecked authority is 
never used properly.

It didn't take long for the government to prove critics of the legislation 
correct.

On May 30, a DEA agent in Billings, Mont., used the act to intimidate the 
owners of the Eagle Lodge into canceling a benefit for drug law reform that 
was to take place that day involving the Nation Organization for the Reform 
of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP).

This is the worst-case scenario come to fruition. The DEA wasn't targeting 
drug dealers or drug users -- they were shutting down a political rally 
supporting a viewpoint different from their own. This isn't even about 
drugs. This is about the freedom of speech.

If you want to let the federal drug pigs know that we're not going to stand 
by as the federal government wages an unjust war on its own people, visit 
the Drug Policy Alliance (www.drugpolicyalliance.org), and fax a letter of 
protest (cost free) to the DEA's head pig, William Simpkins.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens