Pubdate: Fri, 02 Feb 2001
Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
Copyright: 2001 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas
Contact:  400 W. Seventh Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76102
Website: http://www.star-telegram.com/
Forum: http://www.star-telegram.com/comm/forums/
Author: Karen Brooks, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

SHAPIRO REINTRODUCES DRUG BILLS THAT DIDN'T PASS EARLIER

AUSTIN -- After falling short on a package of drug bills she introduced 
last session, state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R- Plano, is trying again.

In 1999 after a spate of heroin-related deaths among teens in Plano, 
Shapiro introduced five bills -- and four failed. The other set up a system 
for the state to keep statistics on heroin-related deaths.

The bills that failed would have gotten tough on minors trying to buy 
drugs; enhanced the penalties for dealing drugs that lead to death; and 
changed from 16 to 18 the age at which children could check themselves out 
of drug treatment centers.

Shapiro has refiled them, saying, "You never know until you try."

Police and parents say even one more law would help.

"Anything that will help the kids," said Barbara Taylor of Bedford, whose 
teen-age daughter Kristen died from a heroin overdose in 1998.

Last session's package ran out of time. Shapiro didn't file the bills until 
the March filing deadline. Three of the bills were held up in the House 
Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and passed to the scheduling House 
Calendars Committee three days before deadline. There they died.

State Rep. Juan Hinojosa, D- McAllen, chairman of the Criminal 
Jurisprudence Committee, which held up the bills last time, said during the 
last session that the enhancement laws were redundant and that the bills 
were too hard on young people.

One bill, SB22, is expected to be sent to the floor next week. It would 
make soliciting drugs by a minor a Class C misdemeanor.

Last session's bill laid out different punishments for different drugs. The 
American Civil Liberties Union criticized the provision, saying it left too 
much room for discrimination.

This time, the bill would put drug solicitation in the same category as 
alcohol solicitation: A minor gets a ticket for trying to buy alcohol; 
similarly a minor would get a ticket for trying to buy drugs.

That change prompted the ACLU to withdraw its opposition, although 
attorneys say the organization still has reservations about enforcement.

But police and parents strongly support it.

"It certainly would have helped us in North Central Texas when we were 
responding to the heroin crisis in that area," Plano police Sgt. A.D. Paul 
testified this week.

Less than two years ago, 11 people were convicted of federal drug charges 
in Plano after authorities proved that the drug dealers had targeted the 
city because it was one of the most affluent towns in Texas. Teens began 
dying of lethal heroin doses in record numbers -- nearly 20 in two years. 
Considerably fewer teens have died since the convictions, police said.

Shapiro said that although there is no way to tell when a ticket is given 
whether it's the child's first time to buy drugs or the 50th, it's one more 
way to let parents know earlier that their child is involved in drugs.

"The parent is always the last one to know," Shapiro said. "In this 
situation, the parent will be one of the first to know."

Hinojosa expressed serious concerns about that bill, saying that it 
bordered on the Draconian.

"There's a lot of opposition to that bill," he said. "You'll make criminals 
of all the children at the age where they don't know any better. It's no 
laughing matter, but sometimes they joke around. I don't want to 
criminalize all our students."
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