STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1088

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: H.B. No. 1734

H.D. 1

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 Health and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1734, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DRUGS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to return traditional zoning regulatory authority in residential zones back to the counties and to allow the Department of Health to license all special treatment facilities and therapeutic living programs.

The Office of the Lieutenant Governor, the Department of Health, the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting, the Honolulu Police Department, the Hawaii Association of Realtors, the Kailua Neighborhood Board, and two individuals submitted testimony in support of this measure. Oxford House, Inc., Tradition House, and three individuals submitted testimony in opposition.

Your Committees find a need to ensure the availability of appropriate settings for persons recovering from substance abuse and find it appropriate to establish a continuum of these settings within the community that would be consistent with current law. Further, your Committees recognize the communities' need to have input into the establishment of these homes in their neighborhoods.

Upon further consideration, your Committees have amended this measure by blending it with S.B. No. 791 S.D.2 as follows:

(1) Replacing the H.B. findings section with the S.B. findings section;

(2) Adding "and that provide a structured environment of clean and sober living conditions to sustain recovery" to the definition of clean and sober homes;

(3) Amending chapter 334, HRS, instead of chapter 321, HRS, to authorize the Department of Health to license special treatment facilities and therapeutic living programs;

(4) Amending subsection 46-4(e), HRS, to include a drug rehabilitation home and defining that term;

(5) Adding a section to ensure that this measure shall not apply to a drug rehabilitation home, special treatment facility, or therapeutic living program in existence prior to its effective date; and

(6) Making the measure effective upon its approval.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Intergovernmental Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1734, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1734, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

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

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair