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Hey, remember “Footloose,” that classic ’80s flick in which city-boy Kevin Bacon moves to a small town where a local minister had banned rock ’n’ roll and dancing? Remember how we laughed at the folly and thanked God nothing so ignorant and restrictive of personal freedoms could happen in the real freedom-filled United States?

Last Thursday the House and Senate passed the AMBER Alert Network Act of 2003. Attached to the bill about child abduction, however, was an updated version of Senator Joe Biden’s, D-Del., 2002 bill, the Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstacy Act. The RAVE Act, introduced a year ago, provided expanded powers to the current laws which make it illegal to maintain a venue for the production and use of illegal drugs.

Under the proposed legislation, venues would no longer be limited to permanent structures primarily used for drugs. Instead, club owners, concert promoters and rave organizers could be prosecuted for the drug use of third parties at their events even if the promoters took steps to prevent drug use at those events.

The RAVE Act is troublesome as an indicator of the government’s drug policy stance, one that favors costly and futile punitive measures over cheaper, safer, more helpful strategies. What’s more concerning about this bill is the way it targets, and essentially criminalizes, an entire subculture.

The rise of rave culture – and as a result electronic dance music culture – has, from its beginning, been closely linked with the increased use of ecstasy. Opponents of the all-night, underground culture see it as nothing but a venue for massive drug use and distribution; indeed, this is the official position of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

But it is thanks to the rave scene that we enjoy the sophistication and diversity of electronic music available today. Trance, Drum ’n’ Bass, Turntablism: all have roots in rave culture.

Of course, the persecution of artistically viable musical scenes that are perceived as counter-culture is nothing new. It’s happened to jazz, rock and hip-hop. The frightening part about what’s happening now is that it represents the first organized effort to completely shut down a subculture and disallow its primary venue of expression. We are realistically looking at a situation where in a few months it may be difficult, if not impossible, to go out dancing to electronic music.

Biden’s bill is a dangerous restriction of personal freedoms. Next time you want to go out and party, check over your shoulder: the Thought Police could be right around the corner.

Want to get involved? Visit www.drugpolicy.org. E-mail Crossen at dcrossen@media.ucla.edu.