DOJ's Dot-Narc Rave Strategy

By Brad King

2:00 a.m. March 13, 2002 PST

snip-

On top of that, a new report suggests the DOJ is actively working on an Internet strategy to target the Web as a source for infiltrating raves, as part of its crackdown on ecstasy, LSD and GHB, commonly called "club drugs."

That has set off alarm bells at the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Much of what the government seems interested in is protected by the First Amendment," said ACLU lawyer Graham Boyd, who is in charge of tracking the government as it begins a crackdown on the electronica dance scene.

"Where a party is, information about the effects of ecstasy, information on harm, and measures to protect yourself if you are taken; that is all legal. It's just speech. One thing that is fundamentally American is that we don't attack the music, we attack the drugs."

Much of the concern centers on a report by the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), an arm of the DOJ, that said "the openness of the Internet, its global reach and its ease of access" allows drug users to push their products on unsuspecting young people. With over 85 percent of American teenagers using the Web on a regular basis, the government sees the news groups and message boards that house rave discussions as a source for the latest information on drugs.

snip-

Read Complete Article Here