Rave Crackdown Targets Drugs, Not Music, Biden Says

His controversial proposal to crack down on all-night dance parties where illegal drugs are used or sold is on the brink of becoming law, but Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. insists he’s not out to stop the music.

At issue is a bill -- once known as the “RAVE Act” -- that has drawn fire from civil liberties groups and grass-roots activists as an unfair attack on the events, popular with teenagers and young adults, where Ecstasy is a common ingredient.

The Delaware Democrat’s proposal went nowhere last year in either the House or Senate. But this year, he renamed it the Illicit Drug Non-Proliferation Act and slipped it into a larger crime bill during a House-Senate conference. The bill cleared Congress last week, and President Bush has said he will sign it.

“The reason I introduced this bill was not to ban dancing, kill ‘the rave scene’ or silence electronic music -- all things of which I have been accused,” Biden told the Senate last week. “In no way is this bill aimed at stifling any type of music or expression. It is only trying to deter illicit drug use and protect kids.”

Biden’s maneuver was little noticed when Congress overwhelmingly approved the crime bill. The main sections of the legislation would expand the Amber alert interstate network aimed at catching child abductors and impose stiff penalties on child sex offenders and other criminals.

But some lawmakers, including members of Biden’s own party, were upset at the impending enactment of a measure that had never been voted on on its own in either the House or the Senate.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, voted against the final version of the crime bill after having previously supported it. Frank said he switched to protest Biden’s provision.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted for the final bill but also expressed concerns. Biden’s measure, Leahy said, “has drawn serious grass-roots opposition.”

“And I know that I am not alone in hearing from many constituents about their serious -- and well-considered -- objections to it,” he said.

The measure should have been given “a fuller hearing,” Leahy added.

The Biden measure would revise a 1986 law that holds owners of crack houses criminally responsible if they knowingly allow their property to be used by drug makers or dealers.

Under the new measure, the crack house law would be expanded to include properties used or rented for temporary or one-time events. Violators -- who could include event promoters and property owners or managers -- would face prison terms or civil fines of $250,000, or twice the gross revenue of an event, whichever is greater.

When he first introduced the bill in June, Biden said he was targeting “club drugs” such as Ecstasy, which are often found at raves, concerts and other events frequented by teenagers and young adults. He said the measure would help drug enforcement agents, who in recent years have sought to crack down on users and dealers at such venues.

The measure was co-sponsored this year by Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Gordon H. Smith (R-Ore.).

Biden said his measure would set a “high bar” for prosecuting offenses and would not punish owners or promoters who follow the law.

But critics said the measure would ignore the efforts of club owners and event promoters to deter illegal drug use by their patrons. They also said the measure would trample on constitutionally protected free expression if it forced the promoters to cancel events rather than risk prosecution or steep fines.

The American Civil Liberties Union, in a letter to lawmakers, complained that the Biden measure -- intentionally or not -- could allow the government to “decimate” law-abiding sponsors of raves, “one of the most popular and vibrant forms of culture today.”

“You’ve got a right to dance,” said Marv Johnson, a legislative counsel for the ACLU.