DEALERS COULD GET BIGGER DOSE OF PRISON

Anti-Drug Proposals Get Big Push In Senate

AUSTIN -- Some drug dealers who sell as little as one gram of illegal
substances would face life imprisonment under a bill that cleared the
Texas Senate on Tuesday.

The measure, Senate Bill 41, would subject drug dealers to a minimum
of 15 years in prison and a maximum life sentence if the buyer dies
from using the drug.

"With the presence of deadlier and more potent drugs today that are
out on the street and risk of overdose as well as death increasing ...
this is an important piece of legislation," said Sen. Florence
Shapiro, R-Plano, the bill's sponsor.

The bill also would allow prosecutors to seek stiffer penalties
against drug dealers if the buyer suffers serious bodily injury as a
result of taking the drug. Punishment in those cases could be
increased to the next highest category of crime, and first-degree
felonies would be subjected to a minimum 15-year sentence.

The Senate also approved another Shapiro proposal Tuesday, Senate Bill
43, which would establish a statewide database of drug overdoses.
Under that proposal, physicians would have to report deaths attributed
to substance abuse, as they now report deaths from firearms.

Both bills are part of a package of anti-drug measures that Shapiro
introduced this session in the wake of the deaths of more than two
dozen young people in North Texas in the past two years. All the
deaths were attributed to heroin overdoses.

SB 41 mirrors federal legislation imposing a maximum life sentence on
drug dealers if an individual dies as a result of taking a substance
bought from the dealer.

Stephanie Goodman, spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Alcohol
and Drug Abuse, said the number of deaths caused by cocaine and heroin
overdoses rose dramatically between 1992 and 1997, the last year for
which the agency has figures.

In 1997, there were 333 deaths attributed to heroin overdoses and 338
attributed to cocaine overdoses. By comparison, in 1992 the state
recorded 223 deaths from cocaine use; that number dropped to 189 in
1995, Goodman said, before rising rapidly in the next two years. In
1992, 167 deaths were attributed to heroin overdoses.

She blamed the rise in cocaine and heroin use on a drop in prices and
newer methods of ingesting the drugs -- such as snorting as opposed to
intravenous injection -- which makes drug use more acceptable to some
people.

One drug counselor told her that an individual can buy enough heroin
to kill himself for $10.

Shapiro's third anti-drug initiative, SB 42, would set a model for
drug testing of public school students at parents' request. Senate
Bill 44 would prevent 16- and 17-year-olds from checking themselves
out of drug treatment programs.