STAND. COM. REP. NO. 742

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 175

       S.D. 2

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 175, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to transfer departmental jurisdiction of the Medical Use of Marijuana Program from the Department of Public Safety to the Department of Health.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Jeanne Ohta, Executive Director, The Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii; Pamela Lichty, MPH, President, The Drug Policy Action Group; Kat Brady, Coordinator, Community Alliance on Prisons; and forty-two individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from Loretta J. Fuddy, A.C.S.W., M.P.H., Acting Director, Department of Health; and one individual.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from Jodie Maesaka-Hirata, Interim Director, Department of Public Safety; and the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, City and County of Honolulu.

     Your Committee finds that the Medical Cannabis Working Group was convened in October 2009 to conduct a study and make recommendations to the Legislature to improve the State's Medical Use of Marijuana Program.  Your Committee also finds that transferring oversight of the program from the Department of Public Safety to the Department of Health was among the working group's recommendations for immediate legislative action to improve the program.  Your Committee further finds that this measure addresses that recommendation.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the registration and certification confirmation service maintained by the Department of Public Safety is temporary and intended only to facilitate the transfer of functions from the Department of Public Safety to the Department of Health;

     (2)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure; and

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 175, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 175, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair