By Thompson of Harris                                 H.B. No. 1648
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to persons who are authorized to sell marital aids and
    1-3  other devices designed to promote safe sexual practices.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 43.23 of the Penal Code is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (a)  A person commits an offense if, knowing its content and
    1-8  character, <he> the person wholesale promotes or possesses with
    1-9  intent to wholesale promote any obscene material or obscene
   1-10        (b)  An offense under Subsection (a) of this section is a
   1-11  felony of the third degree.
   1-12        (c)  A person commits an offense if, knowing its content and
   1-13  character, <he> the person:
   1-14              (1)  promotes or possesses with intent to promote any
   1-15  obscene material or obscene device; or
   1-16              (2)  produces, presents, or directs an obscene
   1-17  performance or participates in a portion thereof that is obscene or
   1-18  that contributes to its obscenity.
   1-19        (d)  An offense under Subsection (c) of this section is a
   1-20  Class A misdemeanor.
   1-21        (e)  A person who promotes or wholesale promotes obscene
   1-22  material or an obscene device or possesses the same with intent to
   1-23  promote or wholesale promote it in the course of his business is
    2-1  presumed to do so with knowledge of its content and character.
    2-2        (f)  <A person who possesses six or more obscene articles is
    2-3  presumed to possess them with intent to promote the same.>  It
    2-4  shall be lawful for a person who is licensed by the Texas State
    2-5  Board of Medical Examiners, the Texas Examiners of Psychologists,
    2-6  the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, the Board of Physical Therapy
    2-7  Examiners, or certified as sex therapist, sex educator or counselor
    2-8  in sexuality by the American Association of Sex Educators,
    2-9  Counselors and Therapists to sell, prescribe and stock marital aids
   2-10  and other sexual devices which might otherwise be defined as
   2-11  obscene under this section.  Possession of marital aids and other
   2-12  sexual devices by a person who is engaged in the teaching of safe
   2-13  sexual practices for a recognized nonprofit educational
   2-14  organization shall not give rise to any presumption of intent to
   2-15  promote or wholesale promote obscene devices under this section.
   2-16        (g)  This section does not apply to a person who possesses or
   2-17  distributes obscene material or obscene devices or participates in
   2-18  conduct otherwise prescribed by this section when the possession,
   2-19  participation, or conduct occurs in the course of law enforcement
   2-20  activities.
   2-21        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-22        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-25  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.