By:  Shelley                                          S.B. No. 1038
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the punishment provided for possession for personal use
    1-2  of substances in Penalty Group I.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 481.115, Health and
    1-5  Safety Code, is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (b)  An offense under Subsection (a) is a felony of the
    1-7  second degree if the amount of the controlled substance possessed
    1-8  is, by aggregate weight, including adulterants or dilutants, less
    1-9  than 28 grams, unless the amount of the controlled substance
   1-10  possessed is, by aggregate weight, including adulterants and
   1-11  dilutants, shown to be less than one-tenth of one gram and the
   1-12  controlled substance is contained in or deposited on one or more
   1-13  pieces of drug paraphernalia, as that term is defined in Section
   1-14  481.002(17), and is recovered or seized under such conditions as
   1-15  would indicate by a preponderance of the evidence that the
   1-16  controlled substance was used or intended to be used for the
   1-17  personal use, ingestion, or consumption of the person charged with
   1-18  the offense, in which event it is a felony of the third degree.
   1-19        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-1  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-2  passage, and it is so enacted.