STAND. COM. REP. NO. 397-04

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: H.B. No. 2499

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 2499 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to assist in the battle against illegal drugs in Hawaii by, among other things:

(1) Creating a method and procedure for tracking the retail sale of laboratory items and regulated chemicals;

(2) Enhancing penalties for persons unlawfully manufacturing controlled substances with a child present or when a child suffers serious or substantial bodily injury during such manufacture;

(3) Amending chapter 329, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), to conform to federal law;

(4) Creating a method for more timely amendments to section 329-61, HRS, to conform to changes in federal law with respect to regulated chemicals used in the manufacture of controlled substances;

(5) Establishing additional criminal violations concerning persons who:

(A) Knowingly sell; or

(B) Knowingly or intentionally possess,

laboratory glassware or apparatus and regulated chemicals for the unlawful manufacture of controlled substances;

and

(6) Establishing additional criminal violations concerning persons who receive or distribute laboratory glassware or apparatus and regulated chemicals with the intent of causing the evasion of legally mandated record-keeping and reporting requirements.

The Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Department of Public Safety, Honolulu Police Department, and Orphan Medical, Inc., supported this bill. Legislative Information Services of Hawaii, Consumer Healthcare Products Association, and Hawaii Food Industry Association opposed the measure. The Office of the Public Defender submitted comments.

After careful consideration, your Committee has amended this bill by, among other things:

(1) Adding gamma hydroxybutyric acid and its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers that are contained in a drug product for which an application has been approved under section 505 of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to Schedule III in section 329-18, HRS;

(2) Removing the substances identified in paragraph (1) above from the definitions of "dangerous drugs" and "harmful drug" under section 712-1240, HRS, and from a list of substances having a depressant effect on the central nervous system; and

(3) Increasing the severity of the all-too-common crime of "date rape" from sexual assault in the second degree to sexual assault in the first degree.

 

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2499, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2499, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs,

 

____________________________

KEN ITO, Chair