Tell the President: Don't Interfere With State Marijuana Laws

>	The Well Rounded Activist: Effective Grassroots Organizing
>	Drug Policy Alliance Annual Report 2009
>	2009 International Drug Policy Reform Conference: Program & Agenda

>	Radical Relief-- Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) [08/22/05]

>	Families Against Mandatory Minimums
>	U.S. Marijuana Party
>	National Institute on Drug Abuse

The legislation would hold anyone from t-shirt vendors to radio station owners accountable for someone else's actions. HR 2962, the Ecstasy Awareness Act, would jail anyone who "profits monetarily from a rave or similar electronic dance event knowing or having reason to know" if some of the event-goers use drugs.

Similarly, HR 834, the CLEAN-UP Act, makes it a federal crime - punishable by up to nine years in prison - to promote "any rave, dance, music, or other entertainment event, that takes place under circumstances where the promoter knows or reasonably ought to know that a controlled substance will be used or distributed."

The Alliance supports other parts of the CLEAN-UP Act, including its main purpose, to help law enforcement officers dismantle dangerous methamphetamine labs without hurting themselves or the environment. But the section dealing with entertainment venues is absurdly punitive. Its effect will be to stop live music from being performed, not to stop drug use.

"The government can't even keep drugs out of its own schools and prisons, yet it is seeking to punish business owners that can't stop their patrons from using drugs," said Bill Piper, Alliance Director of National Affairs. "If these bills become law, innocent business owners could go to jail... that's why business owners and music fans are organizing to protect live music."

To learn more about what you can do to protect live music, click here.