Honorable John Whitmire, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:
John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB164 by Berman (Relating to the civil and criminal consequences of engaging in conduct related to the manufacture of methamphetamine and to the distribution and retail sales of certain chemical substances.), Committee Report 2nd House, Substituted
The provisions of the bill that are the subject of this analysis are the provisions dealing with felony sanctions. The bill would amend the Health and Safety Code by including items used in the manufacture, processing, analyzing, storing, or concealing of methamphetamine in the offense of possession or transport of certain chemicals with intent to manufacture a controlled substance. An offense under this provision is punishable as a felony of the second degree if the controlled substance is listed in Penalty Group 1 or 1-A. The number of persons in possession of materials designed, assembled, or adapted for use in the manufacture, processing, analyzing, storing, or concealing of methamphetamine is unknown. Since the bill proposes punishment for elements of criminal behavior for which there is no historical data, determining the impact of the provision on the criminal justice population is not possible. The impact of this provision on the community supervision population or incarcerated population could be significant depending on the frequency of arrests and prosecutions for this behavior.
The bill would also amend the Health and Safety Code by combining the separate offenses related to the illegal possession or transport of anhydrous ammonia and the illegal use of equipment involving anhydrous ammonia into one offense. The current offenses and the proposed offense are all punishable as a felony of the third degree.
A third degree felony is punishable by imprisonment in the institutional division for any term of not more than 10 years or less than 2 years, or, in addition to confinement, a fine not to exceed $10,000.
It is assumed that the number of persons convicted under this statute would not result in a significant impact on the programs and workload of state corrections agencies or on the demand for resources and services of those agencies.