STAND. COM. REP. NO.1017
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2003
RE: H.B. No. 564
S.D. 1
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-Second State Legislature
Regular Session of 2003
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 564 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PROMOTION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to make it a class C felony to promote a controlled substance in public parks.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Honolulu Police Department and three concerned citizens. The Office of the Public Defender opposed the measure.
Your Committee finds that children and adolescents are very easily influenced by their peers and elders. Many drug addicts were exposed to drugs at a young age. Decreasing a child's exposure to drugs may lower the chance that the child will use drugs.
Your Committee further finds that drug pushers frequent places where children congregate. Certain public parks are known to be areas where drugs can be obtained. Your Committee agrees with the intent of the measure; to deter drug pushers from targeting areas where children and adolescents are known to congregate. To further effectuate this intent, your Committee believes that the scope of this measure should be extended to include other areas frequented by children and adolescents. Therefore, your Committee amended this bill by:
(1) Amending the section title by substituting "protected places" for "school or school vehicles";
(2) Reformatting subsection (1) by creating a list of protected places, and adding shopping malls, theater complexes, arcades, libraries, church grounds, bowling alleys, beaches, and beach parks to the list;
(3) Reformatting subsection (1) paragraphs to subparagraphs and referencing the list of protected places;
(4) Referencing the list of protected places in subsection (2); and
(5) Defining "shopping mall", "theater complex", and "arcade".
Your Committee notes the concern of one of its members that legitimate dispensers of drugs would be affected by these amendments. Your Committee finds, however, that §712-1240.1 provides a defense to prosecution if the person who possessed or distributed the drug did so under authority of law as a practitioner, as an ultimate user of the drug pursuant to a lawful prescription, or as a person otherwise authorized by law.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 564, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 564, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,
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____________________________ COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair |
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