STAND. COM. REP. NO.437
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2001
RE: S.B. No. 921
S.D. 1
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2001
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committees on Health and Human Services and Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 921 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SUBSTANCE ABUSE,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to establish a substance abuse policy council (council) within the Office of the Governor.
Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary, Department of Public Safety, Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, Government Efficiency Teams, Inc., American Civil Liberties Union, Community Alliance on Prisons, The Legislative Center, and Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association. Testimony in opposition was received from the Department of Budget and Finance and the Department of Health.
The council would replace the state advisory commission on drug abuse and controlled substances. The council would develop statewide policy and funding sources for the implementation of substance abuse education, intervention, and treatment programs and services. The council would consist of designated individuals holding specified positions in state and county governments. This measure also provides a dedicated source of funding from liquor taxes.
Your Committees find that substance abuse touches our community in detrimental ways in terms of impact on domestic violence, crime, and developmental disabilities. These high social costs mean high financial costs to the State. Your Committees further find that the current state organizational scheme of treating substance abuse is fragmented and does not address the necessity of having a coordinated effort among governmental agencies to tackle the problem. What is a needed is more interagency cooperation, sharing of resources and information, and setting of policy and goals. This measure is intended to achieve those ends.
Your Committees amended this measure by:
(1) Making the council a temporary agency within the office of the governor, in conformity with section 6 of article V of the State Constitution requiring that only temporary commissions or agencies for specific purposes can be administratively attached to the office of the governor (Attorney General Opinion 96-1);
(2) Adding an ex-offender to the membership of the council;
(3) Clarifying conflicting language in the measure by inserting an unspecified amount of moneys to be deposited into the substance abuse policy council special fund from the liquor taxes collected by the department of taxation;
(4) Adding an appropriation for the hiring of a grant writer in the office of the governor to apply for federal and private grants relating to substance abuse; and
(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments to comport with proper drafting style.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 921, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 921, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services and Judiciary,
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____________________________ BRIAN KANNO, Chair |
____________________________ DAVID MATSUURA, Chair |
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