HB1739 SD1 SSCR1230

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1230

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: H.B. No. 1739

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 1739, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DRUGS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish the Drug Busters program within the Department of the Attorney General and appropriate funds for state and county level substance abuse, treatment, and prevention programs as well as the Nuisance Abatement Unit within the Department of the Attorney General.

Testimony in support of the measure was submitted by the Department of the Attorney General, the Kalihi YMCA, Hina Mauka, Drug Addiction Services of Hawaii, Inc., the Salvation Army, the Community Alliance on Prisons, the Hawaii Juvenile Justice Project, the Coalition for a Drug-Free Hawaii, Blueprint for Change, and one individual. The Department of Health and the Department of Education offered comments on the measure.

This measure establishes the Drug Busters program within the Department of the Attorney General to combat the manufacture, distribution, and sale of crystal methamphetamine within Hawaii. This measure also appropriates funds for various substance abuse, treatment, and prevention programs at both the state and county levels, including student substance abuse assessments by certified substance abuse counselors. Your Committees note the concerns of the Department of Education in being the designated state agency responsible for student substance abuse referrals for purposes of obtaining assessments by certified substance abuse treatment counselors.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Appropriating funds to establish and sustain school-based treatment in all public high schools and all public intermediate and middle schools;

(2) Including assessments of student substance abuse by qualified mental health, alcohol, and drug abuse treatment professionals as an additional purpose for the appropriation; and

(3) Making technical, non-substantive amendments for purposes of clarity.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1739, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1739, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs and Health,

____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair		____________________________ COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair