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."