STAND. COM. REP. NO. 409

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 1160
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and
Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 1160
entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to amend Hawaii's Uniform
Controlled Substance Act to conform to changes in federal and
State law.

     The Department of Public Safety presented testimony in
support of and proposed amendments to the measure.  The Honolulu
Police Department, the Dietary Supplement Safety and Science
Coalition, and Longs Drug Stores presented testimony in support
of the measure's intent.  The Office of the Public Defender
presented comments on the measure.  

     The Hawaii Medical Association, though not present at the
hearing, submitted written testimony proposing an amendment to
the measure.  The Hawaii Academy of Physician Assistants, the
Nonprescription Drug Manufacturers Association, and the Hawaii
Nurses' Association presented testimony in opposition to certain
provisions in the measure and proposed amendments to the measure.

     Some of the amendments to the State's Uniform Controlled
Substance Act proposed by this measure include:


 
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     (1)  Extending the requirements relating to prescriptions to
          mid-level practitioners;

     (2)  Increasing record retention periods;

     (3)  Standardizing the paper size requirements for
          prescriptions;

     (4)  Expanding the list of chemicals subject to mandatory
          reporting requirements;

     (5)  Establishing reporting requirements for suspicious
          purchases of exempt items and tableting or
          encapsulating machines;

     (6)  Removing the exemption for ephedrine products, but
          creating an exception for dietary supplements
          containing ephedrine alkaloids extracted from the plant
          Ephedra;

     (7)  Establishing penalties for sellers of ephedrine
          products who make certain claims about the product's
          effects; and

     (8)  Increasing the penalties for the sale or distribution
          of a regulated chemical without a permit or by a person
          convicted for the second time of a violation of section
          329-67, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and increasing the
          level of offense for other illegal acts.

     Your Committees find that the amendments to the State's
Uniform Controlled Substance Act proposed by this measure will
create consistency between federal and State requirements, assist
law enforcement in the investigation of drug-related offenses,
and strengthen the enforcement of the drug laws. 

     Upon careful consideration, your Committees have amended
this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting the provisions in section 4 of this measure
          establishing prescription requirements for mid-level
          practitioners registered to prescribe controlled
          substances under the authorization of a supervising
          physician and making corresponding deletions of the
          definitions for "mid-level practitioners" and
          "supervising physician";

     (2)  Deleting sections 5 and 6 of this measure;


 
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     (3)  Requiring that a record of transactions involving the
          sale, transfer, or furnishing of an encapsulating or
          tableting machine be kept for two years;

     (4)  Clarifying that regulated transactions required to be
          reported to the administrator of the Narcotics
          Enforcement Division of the Department of Public Safety
          (administrator) are those involving chemicals of an
          above threshold, suspicious, or out of the ordinary
          quantity;

     (5)  Requiring all single entity ephedrine transactions to
          be reported to the administrator to coincide with the
          removal of ephedrine products from the exemption
          provision;

     (6)  Establishing an exception to the reporting requirement
          for certain transactions involving any over-the-counter
          drug product containing pseudoephedrine or
          norpseudoephedrine of a certain quantity;

     (7)  Increasing the retention period for filled prescription
          records from two years to five years; and

     (8)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments, and
          amendments to conform this measure to preferred
          drafting style.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your
Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Health and
Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees
are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1160, as
amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the
form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1160, S.D. 1, and be referred to
the Committee on Judiciary.


 
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                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committees on Commerce and
                                   Consumer Protection and Health
                                   and Human Services,



____________________________       ______________________________
SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair        BRIAN KANNO, Co-Chair



                                   ______________________________
                                   BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Co-Chair

 
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