Report Title:

Drugs

 

Description:

Establishes programs that allow for drug sniffing dogs to patrol in public schools at the request of principals.

 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1123

TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT


 

 

relating to drugs.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the use of drug sniffing dogs to detect illicit drugs is growing.  The Academy of the Pacific and Saint Louis high school use drug sniffing dogs on campus in an effort to curtail drug use and distribution on their respective campuses.  Several hotels, including the Kaanapali Beach Hotel on Maui, also began to use these dogs to curtail drug use amongst the workers.  Lahaina Intermediate School recently stated that they want to implement a program to use drug sniffing dogs on campus.

     The legislature also finds that curtailing illicit drug use and distribution in public schools and in prisons is of great public importance.  In public testimony gathered over the past several years, many organizations and citizens testified about the horrors of dealing with those in the grip of "ice" and the concurrent social costs of the addiction – property crime to support the habit, addiction overcoming family ties, abuse, loss of productive labor, the expense of treatment, and much more.

     Drug sniffing dogs provide a constitutional means for employers and public officials to detect drugs in the workplace and schools, two places where drug use can do the most damage.  The legislature further finds that the Hawaii Supreme Court has consistently ruled in support of the constitutionality of the use of drug sniffing dogs.  From the case of State v. Snitkin, 67 Haw. 168, 681 P.2nd 980 (1984), where a narcotics dog's sniff of airspace around a closed container in the cargo room of a private mail carrier without cause to believe drugs were being transported, to State v. Jerome, 69 Haw. 132, 736 P.2nd 438 (1987), where a drug trafficker was detained at the airport on a tip that the parcel he was carrying contained marijuana and was forced to wait over 30 minutes for a drug sniffing dog to alert the parcel, to State v. Tau`a, 98 Haw. 426, 49 P.3d 1227 (2002), where a drug sniffing dog jumped into a vehicle subject to a legal traffic stop and alerted to drugs in the passenger compartment, the Hawaii Supreme Court has found that the interest of the State in stemming the flow of drugs is important and the use of the dog does not implicate privacy rights.  The purpose of this Act is to establish a program for the use of drug sniffing dogs in public schools and state prisons to curtail the use and distribution of illicit drugs.

     SECTION 2.  Chapter 302A, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

     "§302A-   Drug curtailment program; public schools.  (a)  The department shall establish a program for the use of dogs to patrol schools to detect controlled substances as defined in chapter 329.  The program shall allow for dogs to be requested by the principal of a school to conduct random drug sweeps of the school.

     (b)  The department shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 to effect the purposes of this chapter."

     SECTION 3.  There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $    , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2007-2008, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008-2009, for the purpose of this Act.

     The sums appropriated shall be expended by the education for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 4.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2007.

 

 

INTRODUCED BY:

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