STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1511

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.R. No. 87

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.R. No. 87 entitled:

 

"SENATE 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,"

 

begs 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 states with Good Samaritan laws and their impact on decreasing drug overdose deaths.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Community Alliance on Prisons, and three individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds 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 Committee further finds 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.  Moreover, 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 record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.R. No. 87 and recommends its adoption.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

 

 

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair