At its best, the jam band scene offers a friendly space for peaceful folks to come together and celebrate freedom, creativity and togetherness. At its worst, it's a "fish in the barrel" type situation where the many faces of "the man" can come together and celebrate obsolete drug laws. Unfortunately for the peeps who paid big bucks to set sail on Jam Cruise -- an epic fest featuring Scaring the Children (caught 'em on land), Rhythm Devils (ditto), Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Galactic, and a bunch more -- a few federal agencies decided to get together with BSO for a big pre-cruise drug raid. It was their version of an epic jam.
According to a report from the Sun Sentinel, the raid resulted in 15 seizures of mostly head-stash sized quantities of various party favors, including pot, acid, and shrooms.
Bummer, but...15? There were thousands of people on that boat! Which
means that although there were casualties, the party surely raged on.
The feds may have won their little battle, but the heads won the
non-war. Now, it will be interesting to see if Jam Cruise makes a move
to instill confidence in potential future passengers that they will be
able to rage Jam Cruise 2012 without fear of petty hassle, as pre-order for the tenth annual voyage has begun.