Presidential candidate, former Vice President and former Senator Joe Biden is under fire from the rave community. A 2001 Senate hearing has resurfaced where he says he wants to criminalize raves and lock up promoters.
Biden introduced the Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act, or RAVE Act, back in 2002. This act introduced a crackdown on the party drug ecstasy. However, Biden has openly been against many other drugs.
Biden said in the hearing that “if I were governor of my state or the mayor of my town, I would be passing new ordinances relating to stiff criminal penalties for anyone who holds a rave, the promoter, the guy who owns the building, I would put the son of a gun in jail, I would change the law.”
Biden also talks about the “crack-house law”. This law would tear down any buildings, like clubs or venues, that host raves. The justification for that is that promoters knowingly allow the raves to go on regardless of the drug presence.
He also says that “we better send out a message to the local officials that if you are able to eliminate the circumstances and the places under which raves took place and/or policed those which on their face are legitimate, you would cut into this in an incredible way.”
The RAVE Act, now known as The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, passed on April 10, 2003.
Regardless of how old this video is, it’s a reminder that Joe Biden does not favor the music scene we’ve all come to know and love. Tell us what you think about this bold statement below.
You can watch the moment from the Senate hearing here.
