STAND. COM. REP. NO. 381

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 40

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 40 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PSEUDOEPHEDRINE,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to reclassify pseudoephedrine as a schedule III drug that may only be dispensed with a prescription in order to further control access to the drug.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Legislative Information Services of Hawaii, Hawaii Food Industry Association, and two private citizens.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from one private citizen.

 

     Your Committees heard testimony suggesting that classifying pseudoephedrine as a schedule III drug will increase the workload of an already stressed system of prescription providers and will impose a financial burden on Hawaii's citizens due to the added tracking requirements that would need to be implemented by pharmacies.  Your Committees also heard and concur with testimony in favor of classifying pseudoephedrine as a schedule V drug rather than a schedule III drug and giving pharmacists the ability to dispense small amounts of the drug without a prescription while requiring pharmacists to track the drug's disbursement through the use of signature logs.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure accordingly by:

 

     (1)  Reclassifying pseudoephedrine as a schedule V drug;

 

     (2)  Requiring retailers of drugs containing pseudoephedrine to remove the product from their over-the-counter drug inventories no later than July 1, 2011;

 

     (3)  Permitting pharmacists to dispense small amounts of pseudoephedrine under certain circumstances; and

 

     (4)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to allow for further discussion.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 40, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 40, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection,

 

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair