COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR


Senate Bill No. 354

(By Senators Sprouse, Weeks, Deem, Smith and Boley)

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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;

reported February 19, 2003.]

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A BILL to amend article four, chapter sixty-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section four hundred eleven, relating to creating the offense of operating or attempting to operate a clandestine drug laboratory; defining clandestine drug laboratory; offenses; penalties; and requiring payment for costs of remediation.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article four, chapter sixty-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section four hundred eleven, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. OFFENSES AND PENALTIES.

§60A-4-411. Operating or attempting to operate clandestine drug laboratories; offenses; penalties.

(a) Any person who operates or attempts to operate a clandestine drug laboratory is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be confined in a state correctional facility for not less than one year nor more than five years or fined not less than five thousand dollars nor more than twenty-five thousand dollars, or both.
(b) For purposes of this section, a "clandestine drug laboratory" means any property, real or personal, on or in which a person assembles any chemicals or equipment or combination thereof for the purpose of manufacturing methamphetamine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine or lysergic acid diethylamide in violation of the provisions of section four hundred one of this article.
(c) Any person convicted of a violation of subsection (a) of this section shall be responsible for all reasonable costs, if any, associated with remediation of the site of the clandestine drug laboratory.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is provide for the felony offense of operating or attempting to operate a clandestine drug laboratory.

This section is new; therefore, underlining and strike- throughs have been omitted.)