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Rave New Narcs

By: Wired news

Jason Corona lives in California's Mojave Desert, a teenage wasteland if ever there was one. It's a two-hour drive to the nearest rave, which in earlier years might have presented a problem when it came to finding out where the best DJs are spinning records on the hottest dance floors.

These days, the Internet makes finding those raves easy. Corona scans message boards and websites for local clubs, looking for party information so he and his friends don't waste a precious Saturday night driving around.

But rave enthusiasts aren't the only ones with peering eyes. Law enforcement agencies have distributed an updated version of Reefer Madness, the 1936 cult movie about the dangers of marijuana. The new film introduces police agencies to the DOJ's version of raves. Several clubs have been busted over the past two years as a result of the Department of Justice's tactic of raiding raves as part of its war on drugs.

On top of that, a new report suggests the DOJ is actively working on an Internet strategy to target the Web as a source for infiltrating raves, as part of its crackdown on ecstasy, LSD and GHB, commonly called "club drugs."

That has set off alarm bells at the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Much of what the government seems interested in is protected by the First Amendment," said ACLU lawyer Graham Boyd, who is in charge of tracking the government as it begins a crackdown on the electronica dance scene.

"Where a party is, information about the effects of ecstasy, information on harm, and measures to protect yourself if you are taken; that is all legal. It's just speech. One thing that is fundamentally American is that we don't attack the music, we attack the drugs."

Much of the concern centers on a report by the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), an arm of the DOJ, that said "the openness of the Internet, its global reach and its ease of access" allows drug users to push their products on unsuspecting young people. With over 85 percent of American teenagers using the Web on a regular basis, the government sees the news groups and message boards that house rave discussions as a source for the latest information on drugs.

Since ISPs are largely insulated from revealing user information and host computers can be masked, the study recommends monitoring and tracking websites that post information about drugs.

The NDIC said five types of people should be targeted, including previous drug offenders, legalization advocates, anarchists and people promoting "an expanded freedom of expression" that pushes the boundaries of the First Amendment.

The NDIC can't dictate policy, but its recommendations are considered by the Justice Department. Representatives from the DOJ did not return several phone calls over three weeks regarding this matter.

While an active law enforcement stance hasn't been developed yet, there is little argument that the rave and electronica scene have become targets. Last year, several promoters around the country were prosecuted under the "crack house" law meant to punish landlords who let rental properties become rife with drug lords.

The most ominous case revolved around three New Orleans, Louisiana, rave promoters who were brought up on charges after Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided a party looking for evidence of drug use -- evidence that included paraphernalia such as glow sticks and bottled water. The three, Rob Brunet, Brian Brunet and James Estopinal, were ready to plead guilty until the ACLU got involved.

The trio was acquitted, but a chilling effect has come to the rave scene. Several cities have already passed bills outlawing the dances.

With the specter of Internet raids on the horizon, Boyd said it's more important than ever to protect the rights of individuals. Instructions for making drugs or soliciting sales is most likely illegal, Boyd said, but that doesn't give the government carte blanche when it comes to regulating the Internet.

The threat of a crackdown could cause sites with legitimate information on the effects of club drugs to shut down, Boyd said. That threat is very real for one woman who became a website moderator after her son overdosed on drugs in 1996. She asked to have her name withheld because she doesn't want to bring government scrutiny to her site.

She found the message board while looking for information on raves, trying to find out what her son did. She was skeptical at first, figuring most of the people wanted to get high and dance. Instead, she found an eclectic group whose age range spans several decades.

"I found a community of interesting, intelligent, committed, normal young people with great love for music and dancing," she said. "A small minority of them had worrisome drug-abuse issues, but most of them seemed to have their heads on far straighter than many of my age-mates had during the '60s or '70s."

She is concerned the government will come calling, leaving the 1,200 message board members without a place to talk. Eliminating the social scene would ultimately leave kids without anyone to help guide them.

"Some representatives of the government would love to shut down sites and lists like ours," she said. "The government has the right to target drug use, but that means arresting drug dealers and people who possess drugs. Shutting down raves doesn't stop, or even slow down, drug use. Shutdowns just make the events more dangerous."

The ravers themselves have also banded together to form the Electronic Music Education and Defense Fund, an organization that raises money for people who have been charged with crimes for hosting raves.