Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 257, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to amend the conditions under which returned prescription drugs may be redispensed or redistributed.

Specifically, the measure disallows the redispensation or redistribution of returned prescription drugs that have remained under the control of properly trained personnel of institutional facilities or supervised living groups. However, the measure does allow for the redispensing or redistributing of returned prescription drugs if these drugs remained under the control of properly trained personnel of an acute care hospital that utilizes the services of a consultant pharmacist.

The measure also includes provisions that automatically repeal the amendments made by this measure to section 461-11(c), Hawaii Revised Statutes, and re-enact its underlying provisions upon the Department of Human Services' adoption of rules governing the redispensation or redistribution of returned prescription drugs. If the Department of Human Services fails to adopt rules on this matter, this measure will be repealed on June 30, 2003, and the underlying provisions of section 461-11(c), Hawaii Revised Statutes, will be re-enacted as it read the day before this measure was enacted.

Your Committees received testimony in support of the measure from the Department of the Attorney General and Kaiser Permanente. The Hawaii Pharmacists Association expressed concerns with the measure.

Your Committee has learned that current law that allows the return of prescription drugs has resulted in a large fraud case by one of the pharmaceutical companies. Your Committee believes that this measure is necessary in order to avoid future occurrences of this nature.

Your Committee has amended the measure by deleting the provision that requires that an acute care hospital utilize the services of a consultant pharmacist in order to redispense or redistribute prescription drugs.

Your Committee believes that requiring an acute care hospital to retain the services of a consultant pharmacist is unnecessary since these hospitals retain licensed pharmacists as a part of their staff.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 257, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 257, S.D. 2.