Posted on 06/27/2003 10:07:24 AM PDT by Wolfie
Eagles Get Drug Law Clarification
The Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, D.C., has issued guidance to its field offices nationwide after an incident in Billings involving enforcement of a new anti-drug law.
On May 30, a DEA agent visited the local Eagles Lodge and told the manager that the business could be fined up to $250,000 if it allowed the Billings chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) to hold a fund-raiser concert there and people attending smoked marijuana.
Public outcry
The lodge canceled the concert date. Public outcry locally and nationally prompted the DEA to clarify to its agents how to interpret and enforce the law, spokesman Will Glaspy said.
Glaspy said the memo sent to the field offices is confidential, but much of the information is posted on the agency Web site: www.dea.gov.
The site has been updated in the past few days to address the public concern about the new law, giving answers to commonly asked questions, he said.
The warning received by the Eagles Lodge in Billings apparently was the first issued by the DEA after the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act passed in April. The incident left many clubs, bars and other operators wondering how the law would be enforced and if they were at risk of being fined.
Glaspy said the agency is working to dispel the concerns that have spread in the past few weeks.
"We use the law to target those promoters who use concerts as a means to facilitate drug trafficking," Glaspy said. "The law does not target legitimate businessmen or women."
In any case, legitimate businesses cannot be held responsible if someone lights up a joint at a concert on the business property, he said.
"These legitimate businesses don't have to worry about the DEA coming in and holding them responsible for drug use by their patrons," Glaspy said.
Targeting drug peddlers
The law gives the DEA the power to target a very specialized type of scheme that involves drug peddling at concerts. Glaspy said some unscrupulous promoters falsely advertise concerts as drug-free and alcohol-free; when the teens show up, they are offered drugs and are packed into hot, poorly ventilated areas. Bottled water may be sold for $10. A few concertgoers a night generally end up in the hospital with dehydration or drug overdoses, he said.
Why was the Eagles Lodge contacted by the DEA?
The regional office of the DEA in Denver will no longer comment on the issue. The agent who warned the Eagles Lodge in May is under the jurisdiction of the Denver office, and Glaspy wouldn't discuss whether the agent had been reprimanded. Glaspy said he didn't know all the details of the Billings incident but gave his agency's position in the event that the same scenario presented itself in the future.
"With the recent legal guidance that we've provided to the field offices, a place like the Eagles Lodge -- it would not apply to their situation."
NORML's Web site, like the DEA's, is bristling with information about the new drug law, passed by Congress April 10 as part of the Amber Alert bill. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del. The laws aim to protect children from pornography and drugs, according to the bill's sponsors.
Paul Armentano, a spokesman for NORML in Washington, said his organization does not think the bill's sponsors intended the law to be used to shut down benefit concerts like the one in Billings. They were unaware of the DEA's response to the incident, he said.
"Hopefully, with these revised guidelines it will put an end to the actions of agents like this who purposely try to use the 'Rave Act' to target something they don't agree with personally," Armentano said.
The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act is known by many as the Rave Act because a previous version of the bill, which died in Congress, held that title. The DEA says the law is not intended to target raves, dancing or any other expression, and should not be referred to as such, according to its Web site.
The bill is an amendment to a law enacted 17 years ago known as the "crack house statute." The law allowed the Justice Department to go after property owners who knowingly allowed others to make, use or sell drugs on their property. But the law had a loophole, Glaspy said, because it did not address promoters who rent out a piece of property for an event, like a concert.
"Before, we had no way to target a promoter because (the law) only dealt with owners," Glaspy said.
Closer to home, the local Eagles Lodge has been talking to reporters from all over the country almost daily. Kelly, the bar manager there who asked that her last name not be used, said Wednesday that if the agent who told her the lodge could be fined acted in error, she doesn't hold it against him.
"Nobody's perfect, I'm sure he had the best of intentions," Kelly said. "But it would have saved us from a sticky situation."
Kelly was also good-natured about all the phone calls, and said everyone from the Los Angeles Times to the ACLU has been very polite. Would the Eagles host NORML's benefit concert if the group asked in the future? Kelly said such a decision would be up to the organization's board of trustees.
Offered drugs by whom? The promoter? Does that really happen? If I go to a Dead show and while I am there obtain marijuana, is that a scheme by an unscrupulous promoter, or an incidental--albeit common--transaction. The promotor didn't have anything to do with it, other than helping bring the Dead into town.
Forget the sodomy laws. It's crap like this that makes me think this country is going down the drain.
This is great. Freedom of association - forget it! It's done!
Too late, dear. The US is already down the drain, it's now struggling to stay afloat in the sewer.
Funny isn't it. Biden is a socialist posterboy, but he's wandered off the reservation with this legislation. The radical left will forget about this come re-election time and fall in lock step with him. Idiots. But fun to watch.
FAQs About The Illicit
Drug Anti-Proliferation Act
|
Question: As a business owner, will I be arrested or fined because of illegal drug use by a patron? Answer: No. Legitimate property owners and event promoters are not in violation of the law just because a patron engages in illegal drug activity on their property. DEA Agents have clear guidance specifically advising them that property owners not personally involved in illicit drug activity are not in violation of the law. |
But, it's only a small step to apply the same logic to any rock concert. Maybe that was the DEA position, and maybe that's where the DEA had to back off.
Well put. :-(
Sadly, this is the kind of police state tactic that would make China recoil.
Gonna start calling Biden "Backdoor Joe" 'cause that is how he got this piece of dung legislation through...through the back door. Slapped it onto something else and there you go!
Leahy Speeds AMBER Alert Bill Through Senate
The bill, sponsored by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and by Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), raced through the Senate in little over a week. Leahy, who chairs the Judiciary Committee – which oversees the Department of Justice and all federal law enforcement programs -- scheduled both a hearing and then a committee vote on the bill last week, the same week the bill was introduced. The panel unanimously approved the bill on Sept. 5.
I wonder how many legislators even read it? With such a "nice sounding name" I doubt very many.
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