Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2001
Subject: #205 Time Mag: Narcs Want To Treat Raves Like Crack
Time Mag: Narcs Want To Treat Raves Like Crack
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PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
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DrugSense FOCUS Alert # 205 Thursday April 5, 2001
In their newest quest to criminalize youth, some federal narcs are
attempting to apply “crackhouse laws” that were written in the 1980s
to indict people who organize raves. As Time Magazine reports this
week, the narcs don’t care if the dance party organizers are trying to
sell drugs or not, they just want someone to punish.
As usual, there is no consideration on the part of the drug warriors
that if they do effectively outlaw raves, the parties will be pushed
underground where there is even less chance of reasonable regulation.
Please write a letter to Time Magazine to say that this newest “get
tough” tactic will be just as counterproductive as all the other
“crackdowns” hyped in the name of a drug-free America.
NOTE: A one inch LTE published in TIME Magazine has an equivalent
advertising value of more that $25,000!! See Target Analysis Below.
At Least One Letter a Month. That’s All We Ask!
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Contact Info
Source: Source: Time Magazine (US)
Contact: letters@time.com
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ARTICLE
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n587.a02.html
Newshawk: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/
Pubdate: Mon, 09 Apr 2001
Source: Time Magazine (US)
Section: Society, Pg 62
Copyright: 2001 Time Inc
Contact: letters@time.com
Website: http://www.time.com/time/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/451
Author: John Cloud, New Orleans
ECSTASY CRACKDOWN
Will The Feds Use A 1980s Anti-Crack Law To Destroy The Rave Movement?
Nearly three years after her daughter’s death, Phyllis Kirkland still
visits her grave every day. She drives over from the Monroeville,
Ala., dentist’s office where she works.
She weeps.
Jillian was only 17–“a beautiful 17,” her mom chokes–when she died
from a drug overdose after a sweaty night of dancing at the State
Palace Theatre, a nightclub about a four-hour drive away, in New Orleans.
Jillian’s August 1998 death crushed her mom, but it may also change
how the U.S. government fights its war on drugs like ecstasy.
Jillian’s overdose–the coroner can’t say precisely from what–and the
sad 16 days she clung to life at Charity Hospital enraged doctors there.
Federal agents began investigating, and in January a grand jury
indicted three of the men who ran the club under a novel application
of a 1986 law called the Crack House Statute. It prohibits maintaining
a property “for the purpose of…distributing or using a controlled
substance.” Congress wrote the law to go after sleazebag landlords who
let dealers and addicts hide the crack trade in slums.
This is the first time prosecutors have used it against a nightclub,
and drug enforcers and club owners across the U.S. are watching the
case.
What’s new about this drug-war strategy is that it does not require
the government to show that the defendants–brothers Robert and Brian
Brunet, who managed the State Palace, and Donnie Estopinal, who
promoted its raves–were actually selling drugs.
And so far, the government has offered no evidence that they were,
though investigators have been digging for well over a year.
Rather, U.S. Attorney Eddie Jordan plans to argue that the defendants
looked the other way as druggies turned the State Palace into a kind
of crack house for club drugs.
Cops say it was a place where partiers could easily score hits of
ecstasy and acid without getting hassled by club staff, and where the
staff encouraged the pharmacological festivities by selling
rave-culture gear such as glow sticks and pacifiers.
These are silly fashion accessories for many ravers, but they can be
drug-related too: glow sticks stimulate dilated pupils; pacifiers
relieve the teeth grinding associated with ecstasy.
The Brunets and Estopinal say they did everything they could to keep
their parties sober.
They and their A.C.L.U. lawyers also argue that those who provide
music should not be blamed for its devotees’ crimes.
But the case raises an important question: Given that the use of
ecstasy continues to soar, is there any way to stop club drugs without
stopping the raves?
Could music be to blame for what happened to Jillian
Kirkland?
Before he ever heard of Kirkland, before he became a nationally known
promoter and way before an attorney showed him photos of the prison he
might call home if he loses his case, Estopinal was a frat boy at
Louisiana State University. In the early ’90s, according to
friends–the defendants wouldn’t talk on the record–Estopinal, now
31, was waiting tables, trying to decide whether he really wanted to
be an accountant. Co-workers started taking him dancing. Dance music
was enjoying a revival, having shaken off disco excesses and borrowed
harder beats from underground. Estopinal fell in love with the dance
renaissance and began having parties at a stinky fish-processing
warehouse. By 1995, cops were closing him down for illicit booze sales
and noise, but he knew he could draw thousands of fans of the new music.
He turned to the State Palace to help legitimize his
work.
NOTE: The balance of this article has been snipped for brevity. It can
be read in full at: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n587.a02.html
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SAMPLE LETTER
To the editor of Time Magazine:
So federal narcs want to prosecute organizers of raves where drugs are
used, even if organizers provide reasonable security measures. This is
absurd but not surprising. Drug prohibition itself causes many
problems related to illegal drugs, including dangerous adulterants and
general disrespect for official warnings regarding risks. Drug law
enforcers want to point fingers elsewhere, but a new crackdown is only
going to provide a disincentive for organizers to call an ambulance
when somebody really needs one.
Stephen Young
contact info
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IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone number
Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify
it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies
of the same letter and so that the original author receives credit for
his/her work.
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TARGET ANALYSIS Time Magazine Circulation 4,250,000
Time only has seven published letters in the MAP archive. They tend to
be extremely short, between 23 and 83 words, with an average of 65
words. On the other hand, if you can generate a short powerful reply
to this article you could potentially influence a huge audience. A one
inch LTE published in TIME Magazine has an equivalent advertising
value of more that $25,000!!
http://www.mapinc.org/mapcgi/ltedex.pl?SOURCE=Time+Magazine
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Prepared by Stephen Young – http://www.maximizingharm.com
Focus Alert Specialist