HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1514        FILED ON: 1/13/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 1524

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act relative to reducing the unsafe disposal of hypodermic needles in public places..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 94C of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 32K the following section:-

Section 32L. (a) Any person who possesses a hypodermic syringe or hypodermic needle on any public or private school grounds, playground, park and recreation area or within 20 yards of coastal or inland waters, as defined in section 1 of chapter 131, without a written prescription shall be punished by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than 30 days, or by a fine of not more than $5,000 or both such fine and imprisonment for a first offense and for each subsequent violation of this section, not more than 6 months in a jail or house of correction or by a fine of not more than $10,000 or both such fine and imprisonment .

(b) Any person who places, throws, deposits or discharges non-commercial spent sharps or lancets on any public land,  public or private school grounds, open space, playground, park and recreation area, within 20 yards of coastal or inland waters as defined in section 1 of chapter 131, or on the property of another, shall be punished by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than 30 days, or by a fine of not more than $5,000 or by both such fine and imprisonment for a first offense and for each subsequent violation of this section not more than 6 months in a jail or house of correction or by a fine of not more than $10,000 or by both such fine and imprisonment .

SECTION 2. Section 25K of chapter 111 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “Helpline”, in line 10, the following:- ;(5) information on the penalties for improper hypodermic needle and syringe possession and disposal, including, but not limited to, those enumerated in section 32L of chapter 94C.