spini4
Bluelighter
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- Nov 18, 2003
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DOVER -- A total rewrite of Delaware's drug laws that would lighten some penalties, stiffen others and eliminate some minimum-mandatory sentences is back for a second go-round in the General Assembly.
House Bill 19, introduced in the new session by Rep. Melanie George, D-Bear, would repeal major portions of state drug laws and replace them with three main crimes:
•Drug dealing -- delivery, manufacture or possession with intent to deliver or manufacture.
•Aggravated possession -- possession of amounts that indicate drug dealing.
•Possession -- simple possession of a controlled substance.
The three crimes would have multiple levels of severity, depending on the number of aggravating factors.
Those factors could include resisting arrest, involving a child in the crime or possessing a certain threshold weight of drugs.
There would be five drug-weight tiers, with the lowest weights carrying the least severe penalties.
The bill also would create a new felony: possession of a handgun, a semiautomatic or an automatic weapon while in possession of drugs. Automatic weapons -- submachine and machine guns -- already are illegal in Delaware.
The legislation was hammered out by a committee that included representatives of law enforcement, the Attorney General's Office, the Public Defender's Office and Stand Up for What's Right and Just, a reform group that has pushed similar legislation for years.
"This is a comprehensive rewrite of our drug laws. It represents the consensus of all the affected parties," said George, who sponsored an essentially identical bill last year. That bill made it through the House late last session but languished in the Senate Executive Committee.
Read more at: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110124/NEWS02/101240325/Drug-bill-revises-prison-penalties
House Bill 19, introduced in the new session by Rep. Melanie George, D-Bear, would repeal major portions of state drug laws and replace them with three main crimes:
•Drug dealing -- delivery, manufacture or possession with intent to deliver or manufacture.
•Aggravated possession -- possession of amounts that indicate drug dealing.
•Possession -- simple possession of a controlled substance.
The three crimes would have multiple levels of severity, depending on the number of aggravating factors.
Those factors could include resisting arrest, involving a child in the crime or possessing a certain threshold weight of drugs.
There would be five drug-weight tiers, with the lowest weights carrying the least severe penalties.
The bill also would create a new felony: possession of a handgun, a semiautomatic or an automatic weapon while in possession of drugs. Automatic weapons -- submachine and machine guns -- already are illegal in Delaware.
The legislation was hammered out by a committee that included representatives of law enforcement, the Attorney General's Office, the Public Defender's Office and Stand Up for What's Right and Just, a reform group that has pushed similar legislation for years.
"This is a comprehensive rewrite of our drug laws. It represents the consensus of all the affected parties," said George, who sponsored an essentially identical bill last year. That bill made it through the House late last session but languished in the Senate Executive Committee.
Read more at: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110124/NEWS02/101240325/Drug-bill-revises-prison-penalties
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