STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1145

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.C.R. No. 124

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Health and Higher Education, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 124 entitled:

 

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND THE JOHN A. BURNS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE TO CONDUCT A STUDY ON STATES WITH GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS AND THEIR IMPACT ON DECREASING DRUG OVERDOSE DEATHS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to request the Department of Health and the John A. Burns School of Medicine to conduct a study on the states with Good Samaritan laws and their impact on decreasing drug overdose deaths.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health; Chow Project; Community Alliance on Prisons; and six individuals.

 

     Your Committees find that many people who experience a drug overdose, or who witness a friend experiencing a drug overdose, delay seeking medical assistance out of fear of prosecution.  This delay often can result in serious negative medical outcomes or death for the person experiencing the overdose.  Your Committees further find that medical amnesty is a life-saving policy that immunizes persons seeking medical assistance from criminal liability in order to ensure that medical attention is immediately sought for anyone experiencing a drug overdose. 

 

     Your Committees also find that medical amnesty makes medical safety paramount in situations where someone is experiencing an overdose and promotes a policy that is beneficial to people of the State.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Higher Education that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 124 and recommend that it be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Higher Education,

 

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair