The Rave Act was introduced in the Senate on June 18th and has already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. Simply put, it is lunacy. See our July 10 Action Alert: New Federal Ecstasy Act which we received from the Marijuana Policy Project.

How can we complain so loudly when Democrats as well as Republicans are behind it? Just goes to show being stupid about the drug war can be a bi-partisan affair.

The bill is S. 2633, the Reducing American's Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act.

An outgrowth of the 1980's crack house laws, the law will punish innocent business owners for the acts of its customers. While the bill purports to be aimed at ecstasy and other club drugs, it gives the federal government enormous power to fine and imprison supporters of marijuana legalization, even if they've never smoked marijuana.

The bill will give federal prosecutors new powers to shut down hemp festivals, marijuana rallies and other events and punish business owners and activists for hosting or promoting them.

The bill will effectively make it a federal crime to rent property to medical marijuana patients and their caregivers. It also will potentially subject people to enormous federal sentences if some of their guests smoked marijuana at their party or barbecue.

The bill's sponsors are Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Let them know how you feel about this ill-conceived bill. Don't let your elected congressional officials pass this legislation without serious debate.

For some great commentary on the bill, read University of Tenessee Law Professor Glenn H. Reynolds' Straight Talk column today on the FoxNews website.

Professor Reynolds says (and this is just a quote, we recommend you read the whole thing):

"The real story is that federal law enforcement efforts against ecstasy have proved impotent. Frustrated by this failure, they’ve targeted electronic music concerts ("raves") not because they’re especially important targets (they’re not) but because they’re easy, and public, targets.

Unable to endure the continuing evidence of drug-war failure, the drug warriors are lashing out, hoping that the ignorant will be convinced that they’re earning their pay. Congress is playing along because, basically, Congress isn’t up to the job of riding heard on the massive drug-war bureaucracy.

The Drug War has been a massive failure: a waste of money, of lives and of time. It’s also been accompanied by extensive inroads on traditional American freedoms: property forfeitures, "no-knock" searches, expanded wiretap authority and the destruction of financial privacy, to name just a few. "

If you want to learn more about Ecstasy check out these Drug War Facts.