Owners, Managers Could Face Jail for 'Rave' Parties

The proposed ordinance, which goes to the city council March 28, is similar to a city law that hold multifamily building owners liable for stiff penalties--confiscation of the building for repeat offenders--if they rent to drug dealers. Speaking outside 766 W. Jackson Blvd. on the Near West Side, where police say rave parties were held before they shut them down last year, Mayor Richard M. Daley indicated liquor laws, fire and safety codes also can be enforced against owners of buildings used for rave parties.

"But these don't get to the heart of the matter," Daley says. "People who let their facilities be used for drug parties should be criminally liable. An owner might think twice about allowing drug use on his property if he knew he could end up going to jail."

The proposed ordinance calls for jail terms ranging from two weeks to six months for knowingly maintaining a place where illegal drugs are used, distributed, manufactured or stored. In addition to owners, property managers and lessors, it also would apply to their agents or employees.

"You have to take some responsibility for what takes place on your property," Daley says.

Daley also is calling for tougher penalties for possessing Ecstasy, making the law on that hallucinogen similar to ones on the books for LSD. A law pending in the Illinois Senate would make possession of 15 grams of Ecstasy punishable by up to six years in jail. That prison term is now available for possession of more than 200 grams. "One reason for the rampant use of Ecstasy is that the penalties are too light," Daley says. "The drug is often sold in relatively small quantities, so dealers frequently get off without going to prison."