Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act

The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act of 2003 is a United States federal law enacted as a rider within the PROTECT Act on April 30, 2003. A substantially similar Act was proposed during the previous Congress as the Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act (RAVE Act).

Legislative history

The RAVE Act was originally sponsored by Senator Joseph Biden, who was also the writer of the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act. Biden attached the legislation as a rider to the bill creating the popular AMBER Alert system.

Purpose

The act authorized funds to educate parents and minors on the dangers of Ecstasy and other drugs. It also directed the United States Sentencing Commission to consider increasing federal sentencing penalties for offenses involving gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB). The law made it illegal for people to knowingly open, lease, rent, or maintain − whether permanently or temporarily − any place for the purpose of using, distributing or manufacturing any controlled substance. It also made it unlawful for a manager, employee or owner, to profit from, or make available for use, any place for the purpose of storing, distributing, manufacturing, or using a controlled substance.[1]

Criticism

The act has been criticized for disincentivizing venues from implementing harm reduction measures for fear of prosecution.[2]

The American Civil Liberties Union has criticized the legislation, arguing that the threat of Drug Enforcement Administration enforcement action leads to a chilling effect on speech and "unfairly punishes businesses for the crimes of their customers."[3]

gollark: Unfortunately, æææææÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆæææææÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆæææÆÆÆÆææa nobody can make big organizations work properly.
gollark: Yes.
gollark: > if social systems operated sanely and competent people ran things.
gollark: Mass deployment of nuclear power (and more funding for fusion research, which apparently has not received much), elimination of coal power plants, intra-city short-range electric carpools, sort of thing.
gollark: We probably could have fixed the entire climate issue ages ago if social systems operated sanely and competent people ran things.

See also

References
  1. https://web.archive.org/web/20110417110539/http://www.justice.gov/dea/ongoing/anti-proliferation_act.html. Archived from the original on April 17, 2011. Retrieved May 6, 2011. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. Sullum, Jacob (30 December 2014). "Ignoring Drug Use At Musical Events Only Makes It More Dangerous". https://www.forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved 22 February 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  3. "DEA Must Not Be Allowed to Chill Speech or Shut Down Electronic Music Events". American Civil Liberties Union. n.d. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
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