The RAVE Act
Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Chair
October, 2003
The RAVE Act was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) and in the House by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) in 2002. The purpose of the act is supposedly to extend the penalties imposed against crack house owners, 20 years in federal prison or huge fines, to any venue where drugs are used even once. The law applies to hosts of private parties, concert promoters and to any business owner, including owners of bars, motels and cruise ships. The penalties apply even if the business or home owner takes every reasonable precaution to prevent drug use. The original legislation suggested that prosecutors view selling bottled water, having paramedics on call, and offering air-conditioned rooms as proof that owners and promoters are encouraging drug use at their events.
The most popular drug used at raves (very large dances) is MDMA (Ecstasy). All of the research that the government relies on about MDMA has been done by a husband and wife team of researchers, Dr. George A. Ricarte and Dr. Una McCann. Their laboratory at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center has received millions of dollars from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and has produced several studies concluding that MDMA is dangerous. Their work has been widely criticized by other scientists. In its April, 2002 cover story, “Ecstasy How Dangerous Is It Really?” New Scientist magazine said of their work "Our investigation suggests the experiments are so irretrievably flawed that the scientific community risks haemorrhaging credibility if it continues to let them inform public policy."
In September, 2002 Dr. Ricarte published a frightening report in Science saying that one night's typical dose of MDMA might cause permanent brain damage and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The study was ridiculed by other scientists who said it was at odds with everything that was known about the drug. It was strongly defended by Dr. Alan I. Leshner, the former head of NIDA, now the chief executive officer of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, which publishes Science. Dr. Leshner had given impassioned testimony before Congress about the dangers of MDMA. Dr. Ricaurte's critics accused him of rushing his results into print because the RAVE Act was in committee.
Opponents of the RAVE Act sent thousands of emails, faxes and letters telling their representatives that the act penalized innocent third parties and endangered young people by defining common sense safety measures as encouraging drug use. In the fall of 2002, Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) withdrew their support for the bill and it died.
Not to be deterred, Sen. Biden changed the name of the Senate version of the bill to the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act of 2003, removed the reference to selling bottled water and introduced it as an addition to the very popular and totally unrelated AMBER Alert bill. It passed with no public hearing or debate and became law.
Now comes word that Drs. Ricarte and McCann will retract their 2002 report in the September 12, 2003 issue of Science. The monkeys and baboons in their study were not injected with MDMA but with a powerful amphetamine. Dr. McCann said she regretted the role the false results may have played in the debate going on in Congress.
It is impossible to know how many concert organizers did not hire paramedics or how many events were not held because of fear of prosecution under the RAVE Act. One has been well publicized. The Montana chapters of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) had advertised a fund raising concert in June, 2003. On the day the event was to take place a DEA agent presented the venue owners with a copy of the Act and warned them that they could face a fine of $250,000 if illicit drugs were found on the premises. The bands, most of which regularly played at the venue, were warned that their participation in the event could result in a fine. The concert was cancelled. This action had nothing to do with drug use and everything to do with stifling groups that advocate changes in federal law.