STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2215

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2818

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2818 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE UNIFORM CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES ACT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow the Department of Public Safety Narcotics Enforcement Division Administrator to disclose, at their discretion, confidential information from the Electronic Prescription Accountability System, more commonly known as the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, to authorized employees of the Department of Health Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division and the Emergency Medical Services and Injury Prevention Systems Branch.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety and Department of Health.

Your Committees find that opioid addiction and abuse are a growing problem that threatens the health and well-being of the public. Opioid addiction and abuse can have serious consequences, including death, and should therefore be confronted by employing every available tool at the State's disposal. Your Committees find that one way to combat the growing opioid crisis is to provide certain health officials with authority to analyze data from the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program so that they can help reduce addiction, overdose, and death from opioid use. Accordingly, this measure allows the Department of Public Safety Narcotics Enforcement Division Administrator to disclose confidential information from the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program to authorized employees of the Department of Health Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division and the Emergency Medical Services and Injury Prevention Systems Branch.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2818 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health,

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair