Employers’ complaints
spur changes to ‘ice’ bill
A proposal in the Legislature aimed at fighting Hawaii's crystal methamphetamine epidemic will be changed to address complaints from employers who complained that it included expensive mandates.
"We heard what people had to say," said Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Nanakuli-Makua), Judiciary Committee chairwoman. "We don't want to pass out a bill that people are not going to support."
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House and Senate bills (HB 2003, SB 3233) include provisions that would require private employers to provide their workers drug abuse prevention education and to continue health coverage for employees fired for drug abuse.
Hanabusa has scheduled a hearing for Friday to unveil an amended version of the Senate bill. House Judiciary Chairman Eric Hamakawa (D, Hilo-Glenwood) is planning to unveil a new version of the House bill at a hearing tomorrow.
Neither legislator indicated what changes they plan to make to the original bill.
The original bill would create or toughen existing drug manufacturing, distribution and promotion laws, emphasize treatment over imprisonment for first-time drug offenders and make it easier for family members to commit a drug abuser to involuntary outpatient drug treatment.
The bill also sought to require employers of 15 or more workers to provide at least three hours of drug abuse prevention education a year. Businesses that employ 50 or more would be required to reimburse fired employees up to three months of health insurance premiums so they can get substance abuse treatment.
Failure to provide drug abuse education would subject an employer to fines of between $100 and $1,000 per violation. Employers who fail to pay the insurance premiums of fired workers would face fines of up to $2,500. If they fire employees to evade the reimbursement requirement, they could be fined up to $10,000, imprisoned for up to one year or both, under the original bill.
"The requirements are far too demanding, and the punishment is far too excessive," wrote small-business advocate Bev Harbin in a letter to legislators. Harbin and other business people also objected to the fact that the bill's mandates exempted government employers. County, state and federal agencies would be exempt from health insurance premium reimbursement. Federal agencies would be exempt from the drug abuse education requirement.
Steve Hoag, director of human resources for Hawaii Reserves Inc., the for-profit arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the church and its subsidiaries agree that something needs to be done to combat the state's crystal meth epidemic. But he disagreed with the bill's intent to hold private employers accountable for providing treatment to employees.
"Each employee is an individual who has the freedom to obey the law or not. Why should businesses be held financially accountable for the private, nonwork-related choices of their employees?" Hoag said.
If applied to his company, the annual cost of the drug abuse education would be more than $3,800, he said. Three months of single-coverage health care premiums amount to $1,230 per terminated employee, he said.
