(Bold face mine. For emphasis, yeah?)
Subject: Senate Bill Could Cost You $250,000 and 20 years in prison.
PROPOSED LAW COULD SUBJECT YOU TO 20 YEARS IN
PRISON
Stop the Senate From Banning Marijuana Rallies
and Other Events
Take Action at: http://ga1.org/campaign/rave
The Senate is poised to pass legislation that
would give federal
prosecutors new powers to shut down hemp
festivals, marijuana rallies
and other events and punish business owners and
activists for hosting
or promoting them. The proposed law would also
potentially subject
people to enormous federal sentences if some of
their guests smoked
marijuana at their party or barbecue. It would
also effectively make
it a federal crime to rent property to medical
marijuana patients and
their caregivers.
The bill, known as the Reducing American's
Vulnerability to Ecstasy
Act (RAVE Act), was just introduced in the Senate
on June 18th and has
already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. It
is moving VERY
rapidly and could be passed by the Senate as
early as this week. While
it purports to be aimed at ecstasy and other club
drugs, it gives the
federal government enormous power to fine and
imprison supporters of
marijuana legalization, even if they've never
smoked marijuana.
It is urgent that you take action today!
ACTIONS TO TAKE
** Fax your Senators today. Go to http://ga1.org/campaign/rave to find out more.
** Forward this alert to your friends, family,
and co-workers.
** After you fax your Senators, please follow it
up with phone calls.
Tell them you just faxed them a letter in
opposition to S. 2633,
the Reducing American's Vulnerability to
Ecstasy Act. Tell them
that innocent business owners shouldn't be
punished for the crimes
of their customers. Tell them this bill has
dangerous anti-civil
liberties provisions that they need to be
aware of, and this bill
deserves serious debate.
You can contact your Senators through the Capitol
Switchboard at
202-224-3121. To find out who your Senators are
go to:
http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cfm
MORE INFORMATION
The Senate is considering legislation that would
give federal
prosecutors new powers to shut down raves,
marijuana rallies and other
events they don't like and punish businessmen and
women for hosting or
promoting them. The bill (S. 2633), also known as
the Reducing
American's Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act (RAVE
Act), is moving very
rapidly and could be considered by the full
Senate as early as this
week. (A similar bill is also pending in the
House.)
S. 2633, sponsored by Senators Durbin (D-IL),
Hatch (R-UT), Grassley
(R-IA) and Leahy (D-VT), expands the so-called
"crack house statute" to allow the federal government to fine or
imprison businessmen and women if customers sell or use drugs on their
premises or at their events. Property owners, promoters, and event
coordinators could be
fined hundreds of thousands of dollars or face up
to twenty years in
federal prison if they hold raves or other events
on their property.
If the bill becomes law, property owners may be
too afraid to rent or
lease their property to groups holding hemp
festivals or putting on
all-night dance parties, effectively stifling
free speech and banning
raves and other musical events.
The new law would also make it a federal crime to
temporarily use a place for the purpose of using any illegal drug.
Thus, anyone who used drugs in their own home or threw an event (such
as a party or barbecue) in which one or more of their guests
used drugs could potentially face a $250,000 fine and years in
federal prison. The bill also effectively makes it a federal crime to rent property to medical marijuana patients and their caregivers, giving the federal government a new weapon in its war on AIDS and cancer patients who use marijuana to relieve their suffering.
Health advocates worry that the bill will
endanger our nation's youth.
If enacted, licensed and law-abiding business
owners may stop hosting
raves or other events that federal authorities
don't like, out of fear
of massive fines and prison sentences. Thus, the
law would drive raves
and other musical events further underground and
away from public
health and safety regulations. It would also
discourage business owners from enacting smart harm-reduction
measures to protect their customers. By insinuating that selling bottled water and offering "cool off" rooms is proof that owners and promoters know drug use is occurring at their events, this bill may make business owners too afraid to implement such harm-reduction measures, and the safety of our kids will suffer.
The RAVE Act punishes businessmen and women for the crimes of their
customers and is unprecedented in U.S. history.
The federal government can't even keep drugs out of prisons, yet it
seeks to punish business
owners for failing to keep people from carrying
drugs onto their
premises. If this bill passes, federal
authorities will have the
ability to scare business owners away from using
or renting their
property for marijuana festivals, as well as any
other "politically
incorrect" event.
For more information on this bill, go to
http://thomas.loc.gov/ and
under "bill number" search for S2633. |
