STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 799
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2023
RE: H.B. No. 573
Honorable Scott K. Saiki
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirty-Second State Legislature
Regular Session of 2023
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 573 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FENTANYL TEST STRIPS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
Your Committee
received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health,
Hawai‘i Health & Harm Reduction
Center, Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, Community Alliance on Prisons, and nine
individuals.
Your Committee finds that the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration encourage the use of federal funds to purchase fentanyl
test strips to curb the dramatic spike in drug overdose deaths from the use of
synthetic opioids that include illicitly manufactured fentanyl. Your Committee further finds that the Department
of Health reported that there were seventy-four fatal opioid poisonings in
Hawaii in 2021, fifty of which came from synthetic opioids that included
fentanyl. This measure improves the
prevention and reduction of drug overdoses in the State by allowing fentanyl
test strips to be utilized as a valuable public health tool.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 573 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,
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____________________________ DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair |
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