DRUG WARRIOR JOE BIDEN IS NO FRIEND OF YOUR FREEDOM
By A. Kronstadt

[October 22, 2008] Readers who harbor illusions that a Democratic victory on November 4 will spell an
end to America's expensive and counterproductive War on Drugs should make a study of
the legislative history of Senator and Democratic Vice Presidential hopeful Joe
Biden. When it comes to repressive anti-drug legislation, Biden is a Democratic
Nancy Reagan. Biden drafted the legislation that created the Office of National Drug
Control Policy at the White House as a counterpart to the office of Drug Czar, and
is well known as a supporter of mandatory sentencing for drug offences. One of
Biden's great crusades as a Senator has been to enable the Justice Department to
punish property owners for drug activity that occurs on their premises. In the '90s
he was the sponsor of a "crack house law" that was also used to go after promoters
of concerts where drug use was supposed to have taken place. However, his most
egregious contribution to the persecution of the drug culture was his sponsorship of
the RAVE Act, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush on April 30,
2003.

The abbreviation RAVE stands for Reduce America's Vulnerability to Ecstasy, and, in
a nutshell, it empowers the government to prosecute people who organize or provide
the venue for events at which drug use takes place. The original legislation
referred specifically to raves, and even stated that the presence of items
supposedly associated with Ecstacy use such as glow sticks, pacifiers, and bottled
water, particularly if provided by the organizers of the event, could be used as
evidence of failure to prevent drug use. During its passage through committee some
of the language aimed directly at the rave culture was removed, softening the
impression of cultural persecution but actually broadening the legislation to
include drugs other than Ecstacy and events other than raves.

Along with Biden, who formally introduced the bill, the co-sponsors of the RAVE act
were Orrin Hatch (Rep-Utah), Charles Grassley (Rep-Iowa), Joseph Lieberman
(Dem-Conn), and Strom Thurmond (Rep-N. Carolina): a creative alliance of
right-wingers and Biden. Two early Democratic co-sponsors, Richard Durbin of
Illinois and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, withdrew their support because of the civil
liberties implications of the legislation that was ultimated drafted.

Biden's strategy was not to attempt to have the law passed on its own merits but to
attach the RAVE Act to a bill that created the popular Amber Alert system for
locating abducted children, When the bill went to the Senate floor, legislators were
compelled to vote on both bills together in an all or none fashion. The Shadow has
previously reported on how right-wing Republican James Sensenbrenner used a similar
strategy to get the RealID Act, essentially introducing a National ID card into the
U.S., passed without debate. [ Click here for National ID Card article in SHADOW #52 -- Ed.]

Whether juries will actually convict under such repressive statutes is often a big
question. However, the chilling effect of such legislation is indisputable: less
than a month after the RAVE Act was passed, the Eagle Lodge in Billings, Montana
canceled an event that the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
had booked, after DEA Agents had a little talk with the proprietors about the
implications of the RAVE Act. The Feds wasted no time in stretching the meaning of
the legislation beyond Ecstacy and raves.

Hatred and fear of the counterculture, and particularly of the youth culture, unite
the left and right of the ruling class. Their common goal is to keep us all in line
and exploit us. None of the politicians and government officials who have so
carefully acquired power over others will ever relinquish them in the name of human
freedom. 

[For more information see:
<http://www.drugpolicy.org/communities/raveact/antirave/>
<http://bbsnews.net/bw2003-06-12.html>
<http://www.talkleft.com/story/2003/04/11/191/77208>]