Makes possession and sale of embalming fluid a misdemeanor

BILL NUMBER:S7542B

Title of bill

An act to amend the penal law and public health law, in relation to criminal possession and unlawful sale of embalming fluid

Purpose or general idea of bill

To prevent the recreational and dangerous ingestion or inhalation of embalming fluid.

Summary of specific provisions

Section 1 amends the penal law by adding a new offense, criminal possession of embalming fluid. A person would be guilty of that offense when he or she possesses embalming fluid with the intent to ingest or inhale such embalming fluid or sells to another person knowing that such person will ingest or inhale such embalming fluid. Subsection 2 sets forth a definition of embalming fluid for purposes of this section and defines the crime as a class A misdemeanor.

Section 2 amends the public health law by adding a definition of embalming fluid.

Section 3 amends the public health law by adding a new violation to the section of law dealing with the enforcement and discipline for funeral directors, undertakers and embalmers. This new violation would penalize any funeral director, undertaker or embalmer who sells or offers for sale embalming fluid to another person with actual knowledge that such person is not a licensed funeral director, undertaker or embalmer, or registered student and that such person would be using the embalming fluid for purposes outside the scope of funeral directing or embalming activities.

Justification

Last year in Syracuse, a couple was severely injured when they were struck head-on by an impaired driver. Before getting in the car and running down the couple, the driver had smoked a cigarette dipped in embalming fluid laced with phencyclidine (PCP), a strong hallucinogen. One of the victims of the crash spent weeks in a coma and almost lost a limb. The other victim suffered nearly serious injuries. This tragic story exemplifies a rapidly growing problem: the recreational use of embalming fluid, specifically when mixed with illegal narcotics.

Embalming fluid, a chemical compound containing formaldehyde, methanol, ethanol and other solvents, is a highly-flammable poison, its purpose is to preserve the dead by making the body an unsuitable host for bacteria and other organisms. Though embalming fluid is a legal substance when mixed with drugs, it can produce a hallucinogenic and often violent reaction. Since it is a legal substance, the fluid is available online.

Marijuana laced with the fluid is often sold on the streets, and fluid sold by itself on the streets is almost always laced with other hallucinogenic drugs.

Health-care officials have noted an increase in cases of drugs being mixed with embalming fluid. In fact, Syracuse area hospitals are preparing to handle twice the number of embalming fluid cases compared to last year.

This bill aims to prevent such cases and other tragedies by creating a new penalty for illegal possession of embalming fluid, as well as adding a new penalty within the public health law regulating the funeral directing and embalming professions.

Prior legislative history

This is a new bill.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the 180th day after it shall become law.