CRIME BILL GETS TOUGH ON DRUG TRAFFICKERS

MONTPELIER -- Two weeks after lowering criminal penalties for
possessing small amounts of marijuana, the Senate Judiciary
Committee on Friday approved a bill that boosts the fines and jail
times for possessing heroin and cocaine.

The new proposal, which passed the committee in a 5-0 vote, lowers
the levels of possession for the two illegal drugs at which
trafficking charges would kick in -- thereby boosting the penalties
a person could face when arrested.

Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, the chairman of the committee,
said the bill is directly targeted at stopping the inflow of hard
drugs into Vermont from larger, out-of-state cities in
Massachusetts, New York and Canada.

The violence surrounding drug sales is increasingly worrying, Sears
said. He added that there are also emerging reports of dealers and
gangs hooking young women on these drugs and then forcing them into
prostitution to pay for their habits.

"The violence we've seen, from the problems in Rutland to the recent
slashing in Bennington, reinforces the need for the justice system
to have more tools," Sears said. "We are sending a message that we
don't have this happening in our communities."Sen. Kevin Mullin,
R-Rutland, the sponsor of the trafficking bill, said the amount of
drugs outlined in the proposal for trafficking charges would
indicate someone probably deals drugs for a living.

"With the amounts that are outlined here, we are still talking about
a big business," he explained.

Friday's vote comes just weeks after the committee voted 4-1 to
strip away jail time as a penalty for possession of one ounce or
less of marijuana, putting a fine or court diversion on the table
for the system to deal with small-time possession cases. That bill
was approved last week by the full Vermont Senate and has now been
sent to the House.

The trafficking bill takes a different stance. For cocaine, it
lowers the level of possession from 300 grams to 150 grams for
trafficking charges to kick in, which carry penalties of up to 30
years in prison and $1 million in fines. Conspiracy charges would
also kick in at possession of 400 grams instead of 800 under the current law.

It contains similar changes for heroin possession too. If made into
law, trafficking charges would be allowed for possession of 3.5
grams; current law now has the level twice as much. Conspiracy
charges would apply for 10 grams, instead of the 20 grams now on the books.

Barbara Cimaglio, the deputy commissioner for Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Programs at the Vermont Department of Health, said the amount of
drugs contained in the proposed law ensures that those arrested for
drug trafficking would truly be drug dealers, as opposed to those
addicted to the drugs.

"The amounts we are talking about are far more than what a user
might be carrying," Cimaglio said, adding that the Legislature is
also considering reforms for treatment programs for drug users.

Vermont's law enforcement community appears to strongly back this
change. State Police Capt. Thomas Nelson said the amount of drugs
outlined in the proposed new regulations would amount to thousands
of dollars in street value.

Possession cases involving large amounts of drugs usually get sent
to federal court, where the penalties are stiffer, Nelson explained.
But this change would also allow county prosecutors to apply similar
pressure to drug dealers in the local courts.

"Cocaine is the number one drug problem that we are facing right
now," said Nelson, who noted that police have seen a downward trend
of heroin use and arrests over the last several years. "This is
something we can all get behind."

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee also expressed serious
concerns Friday that the Vermont Prescription Monitoring Program, a
statewide database of legal, behind-the-counter purchases, is not up
and running yet, despite the fact that the bill creating it was
approved almost two years ago.

Vermont police have cited prescription drug abuse as one of their
main concerns as fatal overdoses from pills and other medications
outpaced other drug-related deaths in 2007.

"It is very disappointing to see this take so long to get up and
running," Mullin said.

Cimaglio agreed Friday that the time it has taken to organize the
database has been frustrating. But there have been logistical
hurdles in creating a database that the state has never attempted
before, she said.

These problems included a lack of good candidates to hire to oversee
the program. Cimaglio said there were no solid candidates out of the
first round of the search, essentially putting the program "six
months behind right off the bat."

But there has been progress this year, she said. Contract requests
to create the database were due last week and are being reviewed
now, she explained, and draft rules -- the policies based on laws
passed by the Legislature -- should be ready for review early in March.

"We've had some real good progress recently," said Cimaglio, who
added that the database should be up and running in the fall.