Bill Text: HI SB394 | 2013 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Good Samaritan Policies; Medical Amnesty; Controlled Substances

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-02-15 - Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to JDL. [SB394 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2013-SB394-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 449

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 394

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 394 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MEDICAL AMNESTY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish limited immunity for individuals who seek medical assistance for victims of drug-related overdoses.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Women's Coalition; Drug Policy Forum; CHOW Project; Community Alliance on Prisons; American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii; Harm Reduction Hawaii; Medicine Buddha and Bodhisattvas; and nine individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the City and County of Honolulu Police Department.

 

     Your Committee finds that many people who experience a drug overdose, or who witness a friend experiencing a drug overdose, delay seeking medical assistance out of fear of prosecution.  This delay often can result in serious negative medical outcomes or death for the person experiencing the overdose.  Your Committee finds that medical amnesty is a life-saving policy that immunizes persons seeking medical assistance from criminal liability in order to ensure that medical attention is immediately sought for anyone experiencing a drug overdose.

 

     Your Committee notes the concern of the City and County of Honolulu Police Department that this measure may potentially provide immunity to drug traffickers and finds that amendments to limit immunity to specific possession-related sections of chapter 712, Hawaii Revised Statutes, are necessary.  Your Committee finds that medical amnesty makes medical safety paramount in situations where someone is experiencing an overdose and promotes a policy that is beneficial to people of the State.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing the application of the limited immunity from all of part IV of chapter 712, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to only sections 712-1241(a), 712-1242(a) and (b), 712‑1243, 712-1244(a) and (b), 712-1245(a) and (b), 712‑1246, 712-1246.5, 712-1247(a), (b), (e), and (g), and 712-1248(a) to (c), Hawaii Revised Statutes;

 

     (2)  Amending the condition that evidence of the specific violation was gained as a result of the person's drug-related overdose and the person's need for medical assistance to a condition that evidence of the specific violation was gained solely as a result of the person's seeking medical assistance;

 

     (3)  Specifying that this measure shall not apply to a prosecution where a person who sought medical assistance distributed drugs to the drug-related overdose victim; and

 

     (4)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 394, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 394, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

		____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair