The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 13 : Crimes and Criminal Procedure

Chapter 076 : Weapons of Mass Destruction

• § 3501. Definitions

  (a) As used in this chapter:

  (1) “Chemical warfare agents” means:

  (A) Any weaponized toxic or poisonous chemical, including the following agents or any analog of the following agents:

  (i) Nerve agents, including Tabun (GA), Sarin (GB), Soman (GD), GF, and VX.

  (ii) Choking agents, including Phosgene (CG) and Diphosgene (DP).

  (iii) Blood agents, including Hydrogen Cyanide (AC), Cyanogen Chloride (CK), and Arsine (SA).

  (iv) Blister agents, including mustards (H, HD (sulfur mustard), HN-1, HN-2, HN-3 (nitrogen mustard)), arsenicals, such as Lewisite (L), urticants, such as CX, and incapacitating agents, such as BZ.

  (B) A dangerous chemical or hazardous material generally utilized in an industrial or commercial process when a person knowingly and intentionally utilizes the material with the intent to cause harm, and the use places persons at risk of serious bodily injury or death, or endangers the environment.

  (2) “Health care provider” means a person, partnership, corporation, facility, or institution, licensed, certified, or authorized, by law, to provide professional health care service in this State to an individual during that individual’s medical care, treatment, or confinement.

  (3) “Hoax weapon” means any substance, compound, or other item intended to convey the physical appearance or chemical properties of a weapon of mass destruction or asserted to contain a weapon of mass destruction, which is not a weapon of mass destruction or does not contain a weapon of mass destruction.

  (4) “Law enforcement agency” means:

  (A) A federal law enforcement agency, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Military Police or Military Criminal Investigative Division, U.S. Marshals Service, Secret Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, or the Department of Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

  (B) One of the following Vermont law enforcement agencies:

  (i) The Department of Public Safety.

  (ii) A municipal police department.

  (iii) A sheriff’s department.

  (iv) The Attorney General’s office.

  (v) A State’s Attorney’s office.

  (vi) The Capitol Police Department.

  (5) “Nuclear or radiological agents” means any improvised nuclear device (IND), which is any explosive device designed to cause a nuclear yield, any radiological dispersal device (RDD), which is any explosive device utilized to spread radioactive material, or a simple radiological dispersal device (SRDD), which is any container designed to release radiological material as a weapon without an explosion.

  (6) “Vector” means a living organism or a molecule, including a recombinant molecule, or a biological product that may be engineered as a result of biotechnology, that is capable of carrying a biological agent or toxin to a host.

  (7) “Weapon of mass destruction” means a chemical warfare agent, weaponized biological or biologic warfare agent, nuclear agent, or radiological agent.

  (8) “Weaponization” means the deliberate processing, preparation, packaging, or synthesis of any substance or agent for use as a weapon or munition. “Weaponized agents” means those agents or substances that have been prepared for dissemination through any explosive, thermal, pneumatic, mechanical, or other means.

  (9) “Weaponized biological or biologic warfare agents” means:

  (A) weaponized pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, rickettsia, yeasts, or fungi;

  (B) genetically engineered pathogens;

  (C) weaponized toxins;

  (D) weaponized vectors; and

  (E) weaponized endogenous biological regulators (EBRs).

  (b) The lawful use of chemicals for legitimate mineral extraction, industrial, agricultural, or commercial purposes is not proscribed by this chapter. (Added 2001, No. 137 (Adj. Sess.), § 3.)