Report Title:

Substance Abuse Treatment Facility; CIP

Description:

Authorizes the issuance of general obligation bonds for a capital improvement project for a substance abuse facility.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

1331

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

authorizing the issuance of general obligation bonds and making an APPROPRIATION for a new substance abuse treatment facility.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the types of drugs abused have changed significantly since 1991. In 1991, seventy-five per cent of a sample of inmates admitted drug abuse and that the most widely abused drugs were alcohol (thirty-nine per cent), marijuana (thirteen per cent), and cocaine (eleven per cent). Today, designer and synthetic drugs have become popular because of their ready availability and relatively low cost. One of the most well-known of these synthetic drugs is crystal methamphetamines (ice).

Ice use has increased to epidemic numbers in Hawaii, and the number of inmates with addictions has increased proportionately. Ice is a dangerous drug that causes increased heart rate and blood pressure, psychotic behavior, aggression and paranoia, and reportedly can cause significant, though somewhat reversible, brain damage. Long term ice use can lead to heart attack, stroke, and irreversible brain damage causing permanent mental disabilities.

In addition to the health dangers of ice use, ice addiction poses a danger to our communities. During the first nine months of 2002, the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program reported that 44.8 per cent of male arrestees in Honolulu tested positive for ice, compared with 38.1 per cent in 2001. As of October 2003, approximately two thousand six hundred ninety male inmates (fifty-four per cent) and three hundred forty-seven female inmates (fifty-two percent) were identified as being in need of substance abuse treatment. Currently, there are two hundred thirty level three male beds and fifty female beds dedicated for treatment. There are no treatment beds dedicated for level two facilities, but one hundred six male slots and thirty-eight female slots have been made available. Thus, the system's total treatment capacity at any time is for four hundred twenty-four inmates, which is only about fourteen per cent of the three thousand thirty-seven inmates identified as needing substance abuse treatment.

The purpose of this Act is to authorize general obligation bonds for designing, constructing, and equipping a new substance abuse treatment facility.

SECTION 2. The director of finance is authorized to issue general obligation bonds in the sum of $          , or so much thereof as may be necessary, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for fiscal year 2005-2006 for the purpose of planning, land selection and acquisition, designing, constructing, and equipping a substance abuse facility of sufficient size and functionality to meet the needs of the projected inmate populations it would serve at the time of its activation.

SECTION 3. The appropriation made for the capital improvement project authorized by this Act shall not lapse at the end of the fiscal biennium for which the appropriation is made; provided that all moneys from the appropriation unencumbered as of June 30, 2008, shall lapse as of that date.

SECTION 4. The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of accounting and general services for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2005.

INTRODUCED BY:

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