Posted on 10/04/2005 8:18:39 PM PDT by SmithL
SACRAMENTO -- California taxpayers will no longer help pay the cost of impotency drugs for registered sex offenders under legislation signed Tuesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The bill, from Assemblyman George Plescia, R-San Diego, amends current law that requires the state's health insurance program for the poor to help cover the cost of drugs used for treating erectile dysfunction. The new law, which took effect immediately, changes that requirement to exclude registered sex offenders from the service.
Federal support for subsidized Viagra was curtailed earlier this year when a New York state audit found nearly 200 sex offenders benefiting from the program. Schwarzenegger then asked state agencies to stop prescribing the drugs to sex offenders and requested lawmakers to pass a bill that would outlaw the coverage.
"Giving Viagra to a convicted sex offender is like giving a gun to a bank robber. It's irresponsible and puts innocent people in danger," Plescia said in a statement issued Tuesday. "Today we took an important step to protect both innocent families and taxpayers."
The measure is one of several crime-related bills the governor announced signing. Also on the list are measures that will:
_ Extend for five more years a crime-prevention program aimed at protecting farms and agricultural operations in the Central Valley. The law provides $3.3 million to pay for investigators and prosecutors who will target thieves in rural communities.
_ Allow state and local officials to use global positioning systems to monitor parolees.
_ Permit children to testify in sexual assault cases via closed circuit television, allowing them to face the assailants but from outside the courtroom.
_ Prohibit a parent from having custody of their child if that parent lives with a registered sex offender.
_ Block the state's Department of Mental Health from placing sexually violent patients
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
That there even needed to be a law to stop this speaks volumes about the complete lack of good common sense in Kalefornicatia.
Sex offenders should be killed end of story
I thought there was a constitutional right to free viagra.
Never voted for the man but if I could have I would have
If so, where's mine?
Ok, will somebody go ahead and do the Bill Clinton joke and get it over with?
From the "evidence" (blue dress anyone?) billyboy didn't need the help.
Good job, Arnold.
i had been somewhat skeptical of his conservative credibility, but this combined with the gay marriage veto, he's definitly showing some spine in that rediculously liberal state.
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