Senate Bill S6506

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S6506

SPONSOR: MATTERA
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the penal law, in relation to presumption of intent to
sell

 
PURPOSE:

Provides that possession of 40 or more individual packages of heroin or
a heroin mixture is presumptive evidence of a person's intent to sell
it, thereby increasing the severity of the crime.

 
SUMMARY:

Section 1: Adds a new section 220.26 to Penal Law to provide that for
the purposes of a prosecution for the class B felony crime of Criminal
Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree, where a person
knowingly and unlawfully possesses a narcotic drug with intent to sell
it (S 220.16 (1)), that possessing 40 or more individual packages of
heroin having an aggregate weight of 4.0 grams or more, is presumptive
              

evidence of a person's intent to sell it.

Section 2: Effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The Assembly Minority Task Force on Heroin Addiction & Community
Response held several forums throughout the State to gather information
in order to provide a strong legislative package to combat the heroin
epidemic that is plaguing New York State. Law enforcement, prosecutors
and judges testifying at the forums collectively agreed that "we cannot
arrest or incarcerate our way out of this problem," recognizing that a
multi-pronged approach is necessary to combat this problem. However,
they did make the distinction between persons committing crimes to
support their drug habit and the drug dealers who are gaming the system,
maintaining that current penalties are too weak to deter drug dealers
from selling heroin. Since current law criminalizes the sale/possession
of a controlled substance based on its weight, a person who is caught
possessing 40 or more packages of heroin could be charged with Criminal
Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Fourth Degree.  However, a
person caught possessing 40 or more packages of heroin is clearly not
possessing it solely for his or her own personal use.

This legislation would provide that possessing 40 or more packages of
heroin is presumptive evidence of that person's intent to sell it.

This would elevate the crime to Criminal Possession of a Controlled
Substance in the Third Degree, where a person knowingly and unlawfully
possess a narcotic drug with intent to sell it.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New Bill

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law.