SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 2108

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: JUNE 23, 1997

      The Senate Judiciary Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 2108.

       This bill would make it a crime of the second degree for any person to knowingly assembly, maintain, place or cause to be placed a booby trap on property which is used for the manufacturing, dispensing, or distributing of drugs. The crime of placing a booby trap would be upgraded to a crime of the first degree if the booby trap causes bodily injury.

      In addition, the bill would make it a crime of the third degree for any person to fortify or maintain in a fortified condition a structure in which drugs are manufactured or distributed.

      The bill also provides that the sentence imposed for violating the provisions of the bill concerning booby trapping or fortifying be served consecutively to any sentence for violating any other provision of chapter 35 of Title 2C, unless imposing a consecutive sentence would be a serious injustice outweighing the need to deter such conduct.

      This bill implements Recommendation No. 3 of the "Report to the Governor by the Attorney General on the Need to Update The Comprehensive Drug Reform Act of 1987", issued December 9, 1996.